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THE  LANGHAM  SERIES 
AN  ILLUSTRATED  COLLECTION 
OF  ART  MONOGRAPHS 


EDITED  BY  SELWYN  BRINTON,  M.A. 


THE  LANGHAM  SERIES  OF 
ART  MONOGRAPHS 
EDITED  BY  SELWYN  BRINTON,  M.A. 

VoL  I. — Bartolozzi  and  his  Pupils  in 
England.  Selwyn  Brinton,  M.A. 

VoL.  II. — Colour-Prints  of  Japan.  By 
Edward  F.  Strange. 

VoL.  III. — The  Illustrators  of  Mont- 
martre. By  Frank  L.  Emanuel. 

VoL.  IV. — Auguste  Rodin.  By  Rudolf 
Dircks,  Author  of  ‘‘Verisimilitudes,” 
“ The  Libretto,”  &c. 

VoL.  V. — Venice  as  an  Art  City.  By 
Albert  Zacher.  \_N early  ready 

VoL.  VI. — London  as  an  Art  City.  By 
Mrs.  Steuart  Erskine,  Author  of  “ Lady 
Diana  Beauclerc,”  &c.  [/«  the  Press 

These  volumes  will  be  artistically  pre- 
sented and  profusely  illustrated,  both  with 
colour  plates  and  photogravures,  and  neatly 
bound  in  art  canvas,  is.  6d.  net,  or  in 
leather,  zs.  6d.  net. 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 

WITH  LIST  OF  HIS  PRINCIPAL  WORKS 


BY 

RUDOLF  DIRCKS 

Author  of 

“ VERISIMILITUDES,” 

“the  libretto,”  etc. 


A.  SIEGLE 

2 LANGHAM  PLACE,  LONDON,  W. 
1904 


To 


W.  H.  D. 


A ll  rights  reserved 


-5  - 


(o  I cL 

cop  - ^ 


The  author  wishes  to  express  his  sense 
op  indebtedness  to  M.  Rodin  for  the 
courtesy  with  which  M.  Rodin  received 
him  at  his  studios  in  Paris  and  at 
Meudon^  and  for  his  frank  and  cordial 
expression  of  his  ideas  in  regard  to  the 
art  of  sculpture 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Portrait  of  Auguste  Rodin  {Photogravure) 

f 

Frontispiece 

Facing 

page 

The  Thinker 

{Musee  Rodin  at  Meudon) 

. 8 

The  Man  with  the  Broken  Nose 
{Musee  Rodin  at  Meudon) 

f 

. . 12 

The  Age  of  Bronze  .... 
{Musie  du  Luxembourg) 

. . iS 

St.  John  the  Baptist 

(Musee  du  Luxembourg) 

• 

. 24 

La  Pens^e  ” 

{Musde  du  Luxembourg) 

The  Danaide  ..... 
{Musee  du  Luxembourg) 

. . 36 

Bust  of  Jean  Paul  Laurens 

{Musee  du  Luxembourg 

. 44 

The  Kiss  

{Musee  du  Luxembourg 

The  Burgesses  of  Calais  {Photogravure) 
{Place  de  la  Poste^  Calais) 

. 52 

Balzac  ...... 

{Musie  Rodin  at  Meudon) 

. . 60 

A Sketch  from  the  Model 

. 67 

Polyphemus 

{Musee  du  Luxembourg) 

. 70 

CONTENTS 


Introductory — Rodin  and  the  Modern  Movement — 
Compared  with  the  antique — His  view  of  Nature — 
iEsthetics  of  sculpture  . . . Pp,  i-io 

I 

The  art  instinct — Rodin’s  early  training — ‘‘La  Petite 
£cole  de  Dessin  ” — The  Man  with  the  Broken  Nose 
— The  Siege  of  Paris — Brussels — Visit  to  Italy — 
“ The  Age  of  Bronze  ” . . Pp.  1 1-20 

II 

Combination  of  artistic  and  philosophic  spirit — Life  at 
Brussels — Accepted  at  the  Salon — Charge  of  casting 
from  life — M.  Turquet  appointed  Under-Secretary 
for  Fine  Arts Pp.  21-26 

III 

Renaissance  and  Gothic  sculpture — “St.  John  the 
Baptist” — Rodin’s  eclecticism — His  view  of  Nature 

Pp.  27-34. 


CONTENTS 


IV 

At  Sevres — La  Defense  Nationale  ” — Commission  for 
La  Porte  de  PEnfer  ” — Its  origin — Description — 
Dante  and  Baudelaire  . . . Pp.  35-42 

V 

^‘The  Three  Phantoms’’  — ‘‘The  Thinker” — Por- 
traiture— Antagonism  to  his  work — The  Artist  and 
the  State — “ Le  Baiser  ”...  Pp.  43-48 


VI 

Monument  of  Claude  Gellee — The  Burgesses  of  Calais 
— Froissart’s  “Chronicles” — The  position  of  the 
monument  .....  Pp.  49-57 


VII 

Monument  of  Victor  Hugo — The  Balzac — Lamartine’s 
description — The  “ Society  des  Gens  de  Lettres  ” — 
Rejection  of  the  statue  . . . Pp.  58-65 


VIII 

Dry-points  and  sketches — Rodin’s  symbolism — “ Monu- 
ment du  Travail  ” — Reception  in  England— Revival 
of  interest  in  sculpture  . . . Pp.  66-70 

List  of  M.  Rodin’s  Principal  Works  Pp.  71-72 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


During  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  the  creative  forces  in  various 
kinds  of  art,  in  literature,  music,  and 
sculpture,  found  an  expression  which  did  not  quite 
fall  in  with  any  of  the  existing  categories. 

Tolstoy  in  fiction,  Ibsen  in  drama,  Walt  Whit- 
man in  poetry,  and  Wagner  in  music — to  take  only 
the  greatest  names — brought  into  art  a new  spirit, 
and,  in  some  respects,  a new  form.  To  the  same 
type  of  creative  force  must  now  be  added  the  name 
of  Rodin.  The  tendency  of  the  work  of  these 
various  artists  was  to  lift  art  out  of  a certain 
parochialism,  to  give  it  an  intellectual  impetus, 
and  to  bring  within  its  influence,  not  only  those 
who  cared  about  art,  but  also  those  who  cared 
about  life  in  its  more  profound  aspects,  or  about 
philosophy. 

In  idea  it  was  art  after  what  one  calls  the  grand 


2 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


manner ; it  extended  its  influence  in  all  directions, 
and  it  provoked  discussion,  as  the  profound  affairs 
of  life  provoke  discussion.  It  forced  itself  to  be 
taken  seriously.  It  was  not  a type  that  captivates 
and  charms  ; it  was  not  sensuous  ; it  appealed  to 
the  emotions  through  the  intellect ; and  it  was 
fastidious  only  in  its  penetration,  in  its  breadth,  and 
in  its  insistence  on  the  relation  of  man  to  the  uni- 
versal scheme  of  things. 

When  Ibsen  takes  the  affairs  of  a small  Nor- 
wegian town  as  the  subject  for  a play,  the  work 
turns  out  to  be  a microcosm  ; and  when  Tolstoy 
portrays  the  perfectly  idiosyncratic  and  Slavonic 
types  of  Anna  Karenin  and  Levin^  he  portrays  also 
the  universal  types  of  man  and  woman,  not  only  in 
relation  to  their  immediate  surroundings,  to  small 
manners,  but  in  relation  to  the  formidable  questions 
which  mankind  and  womankind  are  for  ever  putting 
to  themselves.  This  intimate,  questioning  spirit, 
this  subjective  appeal,  concerned  with  the  spiritual 
phases  of  life,  accounts  not  a little,  no  doubt,  for  the 
distaste  which  this  kind  of  literature  has  occasioned, 
and  may  still  occasion,  in  many  quarters. 

Rodin  represents  an  analogous  temper  in  the  art 
of  sculpture.  As  with  those  others,  his  work  carries 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


3 


the  mind  beyond  the  object  actually  represented. 
It  is  curiously  metaphysical ; and  it  is  as  sincerely 
the  outcome  of  the  conditions  and  thought  of 
modern  life  as  the  sculpture  of  the  ancients  was 
of  the  life  of  Greece.  The  kind  of  thought  which 
finds  expression  in  his  work  is  entirely  opposed  to 
what  one  calls  Hellenic  serenity.  But  the  spirit  of 
the  Greeks  can  only  be  approached  to-day  in  a 
spirit  of  scholarship  and  detachment.  Greek  sculp- 
ture, it  has  been  said,  was  the  finest  expression  of 
Greek  life  ; a sensuous,  open-air,  well  ordered  life, 
largely  spent  between  the  gymnasia  and  the  temple. 
In  their  love  and  care  of  the  human  body  they 
created  an  image  of  man  more  perfect  than  man 
himself ; and  this  applies  not  only  to  the  figures 
of  Olympian  divinities,  but  to  the  athletes,  for  the 
Discobolus  and  Apoxyomenus  are  not  less  perfect  figures 
than  the  Apollo  and  Hermes, 

All  the  skill  and  adaptability  of  their  art  was  for  a 
considerable  period  devoted  to  the  human  frame 
alone,  the  head,  the  cast  of  the  features,  being 
largely  a convention.  In  the  course  of  time  a 
perfect  head  was  evolved  for  this  perfect  body,  and 
the  serene  and  beautiful  features,  with  their  touch 
of  sadness,  possess  subtleties  which  perhaps  we 


4 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


can  no  longer  adequately  apprehend, — the  expres- 
sion of  which  was  modified  no  doubt  by  the  athletic 
life,  which  then,  as  now,  would  have  taken  a visible 
sign  of  extreme  emotion  as  a sign  of  weakness. 
The  sculptors  of  Greece  were  faithful  interpreters 
of  the  feeling  and  thought  of  their  time  ; and  rather 
by  working  in  their  interpretative  spirit,  than  by 
imitation  of  the  works  of  a past  and  golden  age, 
may  a modern  sculptor  hope  to  provide  a distant 
analogy  between  himself  and  the  ancients. 

In  this  respect  if  in  no  other  Rodin  may  be  said 
to  possess  the  classic  spirit  ; he  reflects  in  his  work 
the  complex  temper  of  his  age  more  completely  than 
any  other  living  sculptor.  And,  in  so  far  as  the 
conditions  of  modern  life  are  almost  dramatically 
opposed  to  the  conditions  of  Greek  life  does  his  art 
too  diverge  from  that  of  the  antique.  In  the  tur- 
moil and  competition  of  commerce,  in  the  impetuous 
advance  of  science,  in  the  quickened  means  of  mental 
communication,  in  the  strenuous  cultivation  of 
knowledge,  in  all  this  curiosity,  thirst,  and  restless- 
ness of  the  life  of  the  last  hundred  years,  the  nature 
of  man  has  not  remained  stationary.  Science 
has  scarcely  added  to  the  simplicity  of  either  thought 
or  emotion  by  discounting  explanations  which  had 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


5 


hitherto  been  largely  satisfying  to  both,  and  by 
confronting  man  afresh  with  the  problem  of  his 
own  being.  In  all  this  mental  conflict,  in  this 
turbulence  of  feeling,  art  has  found  expression 
which  cannot  be  grouped  under  the  older  formulas 
of  classic  or  romantic  or  realistic.  It  is  no  longer 
the  expression  of  a controlled  and  sustained  wisdom 
as  was  Greek  art ; nor  of  a splendid  and  irresistible 
vitality,  tempered  by  religious  feeling,  as  was  the 
art  of  the  Italian  Renaissance.  It  is  introspective, 
experimental,  neurotic. 

Rodin  is  a manifestation  of  this  spirit  in  art. 
Simple-minded  and  strenuous,  he  moves  in  a world 
of  abstract  ideas,  in  a world  of  mystery  and  exalta- 
tion, with  a singular  lack  of  self-consciousness.  A 
writer  has  said  that  Rodin  talks  about  art  as  a farmer 
talks  about  crops.  And  these  abstractions, — the 
neurotic  images  of  a Baudelaire,  the  horrors  of  the 
Inferno^  the  soul  of  a Victor  Hugo,  or  a Balzac,  or 
a Rochefort,  or  a Peruvian  beauty, — are  to  him  as 
much  the  affairs  of  his  daily  life  and  thought  as  corn 
and  pasture  are  to  a farmer.  He  talks  incessantly 
of  Nature,  of  its  secrets,  of  its  beauty,  as  containing 
the  whole  problem,  in  art,  that  really  matters.  He 
does  not  approach  Nature  with  preconceived  ideas. 


6 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


He  does  not  wish  to  pose  or  arrange  it ; for  it  has 
it  own  poses,  its  own  arrangement,  which  are  suf- 
ficient in  themselves.  La  Nature^^^  he  tells  us, 
56  compose  elle-memeP 

He  chooses,  as  it  is  said  that  Lysippus  chose,  that 
Nature  should  be  his  instructor.  Nature,”  Rodin 
has  said,  is  ever  full  of  fine  form,  of  design  ; yet  so 
many  pass  by  and  see  nothing,  and  copy  old  things, 
or  work  in  preconceived  notions  of  Nature  ; and  all 
the  while  Nature  is  there,  full  of  delightful  new 
forms,  in  the  stalk  of  a flower,  in  a bud,  in  a human 
limb,  in  a passing  action  in  the  street.”  ^ Again,  he 
says,  with  regard  to  his  method  of  working  : 

y* observe  longuement  mon  modele^  je  ne  lui  demande 
pas  de  pose  cherchee^je  le  laisse  lihre  dialler  et  venir 
dans  r atelier  comme  un  cheval  echappc^  et  je  transcris 
Les  observations  que  je  fais.  C^estpar  cette  etude  patiente 
que  j^ai  retrouve^  parfois^  les  procedh  des  Grecs^  grace 
au  travail  lui-mhne^  et  non  en  imitant  leurs  statuesT  t 
It  will,  no  doubt,  be  necessary  to  return  to  this 
view  of  Nature  in  the  independent  consideration  of 
his  work  ; but  it  may  be  said  here  that  his  view  is 
not  that  of  the  realist, — but  that  of  the  poet,  the 

* Art  Journal^  1900,  p.  214. 
t Cladel  : Auguste  Rodin,  p.  29. 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


7 


visionary,  the  philosopher.  Nature  to  him  is 
always  a concrete  presentment  of  an  abstract  idea. 
Clay,  marble,  bronze,  are  the  materials  in  which  he 
thinks  : his  thought  is  entirely  plastic.  It  is  a 
testimony,  if  a minor  one,  to  his  competence  in  his 
art,  that  he  is  content  for  it  to  speak  for  itself, 
that  he  is  indifferent  to  the  literary  accompaniment 
of  a title.  His  type  of  work  is  never  that  of  the 
petite  anecdote  ; its  range  is  outside  the  small  illus- 
trations, the  small  circumstances  of  life.  Nature 
speaks  through  him  of  her  larger  schemes.  He 
would  prefer  to  number  his  works  as  a composer 
numbers  his  sonatas.  But  to  be  eloquent  in  sculp- 
ture, he  says,  one  must  be  a master  of  modelling  ; 
further,  it  is  necessary  to  exaggerate  a little, — 
and  it  is  necessary  to  sacrifice.  He  copies  Nature 
at  her  moment  of  freedom  and  expression  ; but  to 
give  the  idea  of  freedom  and  expression  it  is  neces- 
sary for  him  to  use  his  material  as  an  artist.  This 
is,  of  course,  due  to  the  fact  that  art  is  not  Nature, 
but  a conversion  of  Nature  ; and  to  give  the  effect 
of  truth  in  art  elimination  and  emphasis  are  neces- 
sary as  means  to  an  end,  A painter,  for  instance, 
would  not  give  the  true  effect  of  a tree  if  he  painted 
every  leaf,  nor  of  a house  if  he  depicted  every  brick. 


8 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


Lessing  has  said  that  the  aim  of  knowledge  is 
truth,  and  that  the  aim  of  art  is  pleasure.  But 
aesthetics  have  been  largely  formulated  on  the  work 
of  the  Greeks.  Aristotle,  Plato,  Winckelmann, 
BufFon,  and  many  others  have  all  assisted  in  giving 
lucidity  to  thought  in  the  philosophy  of  fine  art ; 
but  their  expositions  are  various  and  often  antago- 
nistic. It  may  be  doubted  if  a system  of  aesthetics 
can  be  adopted,  in  any  way,  as  final.  For,  after  all, 
aesthetics  are  founded  on  the  achievements  of  the 
artist,  and  a fresh  manifestation  in  art  may  upset 
philosophic  calculations.  Certainly,  if  one  were 
now  to  accept  Lessing’s  aim  of  art  as  defining  its 
whole  scope  and  breadth,  one  would  have  to  en- 
large the  significance  of  the  meaning  of  the  word 
pleasure. 

The  words  amusement  and  pleasure  in  this  con- 
nection seem  to  us  not  only  misleading,  but  respon- 
sible for  a point  of  view  which  is  antagonistic  to 
a proper  conception  of  the  position  of  art  in  the 
general  scheme  of  things.  Art  is  not  merely  a 
temporary  distraction  from  the  serious  affairs  of 
life,  an  easy  refreshment  for  a mind  overburdened 
by  its  personal  cares.  It  strikes  deeper  than  that. 
We  realise  the  world,  a recent  writer  has  said, 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


9 


in  three  different  ways,  from  the  standpoint  of 
religion,  of  philosophy,  of  art.  Religion  is  the 
realisation  of  the  aspect  of  things  which  have  the 
highest  emotional  significance  for  us  as  human 
beings.  Philosophy  is  the  formal  or  diagrammatic 
realisation  of  the  world  ; art  its  impressionistic  or 
emotional  realisation.  Both  in  philosophy  and  art 
we  have  to  convert  things  into  terms  of  the  mind. 
Art,  in  its  way,  is  as  formal  as  philosophy  : its  final 
object  is  the  same  as  philosophy.  It  is  essentially 
impressionistic,  and  you  may  have  an  impressionistic 
realisation  of  deeper  truths,  just  as  you  may  have 
a philosophic  realisation  of  them. 

It  is  a corollary,  noted  by  Mr.  Brownell,  that  the 
predominance  of  the  intellectual  over  the  sensuous 
instinct  is  that  the  true  should  be  preferred  to  the 
beautiful.  One  of  the  most  suggestive  statements 
of  aesthetics  is  contained  in  Mr.  Leopold  Eidlitz’s 
‘‘Nature  and  Function  of  Art,”  in  which  he  says, 
first  (following  Hegel),  that  art  is  an  idea  expressed  in 
matter ; and,  secondly,  that  beauty  in  art  does  not 
rest  with  the  object  represented  but  with  the  manner 
of  its  representation  ; that  beauty  is  “ the  measure 
of  creative  force  in  the  abstract.”  Rodin  holds  that 
there  is  nothing  ugly  in  Nature.  There  are,  how- 


lO 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


ever,  objects  in  Nature  which  would  give  one  no 
pleasure  to  contemplate  ; but  which,  represented  in 
art,  become  things  of  beauty.  And  this  theory 
becomes  of  the  closest  interest  to  us  in  relation  to 
much  of  this  sculptor’s  work. 


I 


The  biography  of  a living  person  is  almost 
necessarily  an  essay  in  impertinence. 
One  feels,  above  all,  in  the  case  of  an 
artist  who  gives  himself  to  the  world  in  his  work, 
that  the  intimate  facts  of  his  life,  the  merely 
personal  might  be  left  very  well  to  himself.  But 
the  trivial,  and,  largely,  quite  inexcusable  curiosity 
which  exists  about  persons  with  a name,  has, 
perhaps,  a definite  measure  of  critical  import- 
ance, when  the  name  happens  to  be  associated 
either  with  a philosophic  system, — the  expres- 
sion of  experimental  thought, — or  with  a work 
of  art  whose  influence  may  be  as  lasting  as  the 
material  of  which  it  is  composed.  This  curiosity, 
which  in  the  critic  takes  the  form  of  a scientific 
inquiry,  that  investigates  the  accidents  of  influences 
and  tendencies,  has  a definite,  an  anthropologic  in- 
terest in  so  far  as  it  helps  to  explain  man  to  himself. 


12 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


But  this  explanation  can  at  best  be  suggestive, 
tentative ; it  can  never  be  complete — so  far  as  the 
creation  of  art  is  concerned.  For  behind  the 
creation  of  a work  of  art,  there  hangs  as  great  a 
mystery  as  behind  the  creation  of  the  world.  It  is 
the  mystery  which  enables  man,  with  his  short 
span  of  life,  to  create  an  image  of  himself  which 
may  be  eloquent  for  centuries.  In  the  face  of  great 
art,  which  is  the  work  of  man,  as  in  the  face  of 
nature  which  is  the  work  of  God,  man  himself 
becomes  of  small  account.  We  linger  over  the 
names  of  Ictinus,  Pheidias,  Lysippus,  Homer  (and 
we  have  no  more  than  the  names),  because  we 
associate  them  with  various  works  of  Architecture, 
Sculpture,  or  Poetry ; but,  if  their  names  had 
been  obliterated  from  the  page  of  history,  would 
the  whole  or  the  fragments  of  their  works  which 
have  come  down  to  us  be  less  infinitely  precious  ? 
Co-ordination  and  analysis,  however  scientific,  can 
never  ultimately  explain  the  essential  thing — the 
quality  of  the  creative  gift  itself ; but  the  rest, 
the  parentage  of  an  artist,  the  manner  in  which  he 
lived,  what  he  saw,  all  the  lesser  things  which  have 
gone  to  help  him  to  produce  what,  after  all,  is  a sort 
of  miracle,  these  remain  of  interest.  They  may  throw 


Photo  Druet 


L’HOMME  AU  NEZ  CASSEE 

(^Bronze^ 


> 


4 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


13 


some  light  on  the  direction  in  which  his  creative 
power  has  sought  expression;  and  in  the  case  of 
a ‘^revolutionary,  protestant”  spirit,  like  Rodin, 
they  possess  for  us  an  interest  of  a very  special  kind. 

Biographical  history  scarcely  offers  a more  in- 
teresting instance  of  a man  under  the  spell  of  the 
artistic  instinct — dominated,  that  is,  by  the  gift  ot 
expression  outside  himself  which  makes  for  what 
one  calls  art.  Rodin’s  battle  with  circumstances 
was,  in  view  of  his  vast  productive  power,  un- 
usually prolonged.  But,  sustained  by  what  Pro- 
fessor Dowden  calls  a “ large  and  wholesome 
sanity,”  the  suppression  of  his  natural  gifts  seems  to 
have  had  the  effect  of  storing  impetus,  which,  when 
released  later,  projected  its  message  with  greater 
force  and  greater  certainty.  Rodin  had  arrived  at 
middle  age  before  he  found  a public,  and  then  a 
public,  for  the  most  part,  implacably  hostile. 
During  that  long  period  of  probation — the  fifteen 
years  which  lapsed  between  the  creation  of  “ The 
Man  with  the  Broken  Nose  ” and  the  “ Age  of 
Bronze,”  between  the  ages  of  twenty-two  and 
thirty-seven — Rodin  seemed  to  be  in  the  possession 
of  a dual  personality.  There  was  Rodin  the  work- 
man of  Carrier  Belleuse  and  others,  an  admirable 


H 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


and  strenuous  craftsman  by  all  accounts,  earning 
the  daily  wage  which  provided  shelter  and  food 
and  some  sort  of  studio  for  the  other  Rodin — the 
sculptor,  the  visionary,  the  poet,  who  in  the  spirit 
of  an  alchemist  searching  for  the  secrets  of  eternal 
life  or  eternal  wealth,  sought  as  zealously  for  the 
secret  of  the  quality  which  makes  for  permanence 
in  the  art  of  sculpture.  This  quality  he  recognised 
as  known  to  the  sculptors  of  Greece,  and  of  the 
Italian  Renaissance.  Finally,  a visit  to  Italy  and 
his  observation  of  the  works  of  Michelangelo,  of 
Donatello,  of  Verocchio,  and  of  the  antique  revealed 
to  him  the  nature  of  this  secret.  His  discovery 
found  expression  in  the  Age  of  Bronze”;  and 
from  the  time  of  the  exhibition  of  that  figure  dates 
the  Modern  Renaissance  in  sculpture  of  which  he 
is  largely  the  protagonist. 

Rodin,  like  his  teacher  Barye,  or  Houdon,  is  a 
child  of  the  people.  He  was  born  in  Paris,  in 
November  1840.  His  father  came  from  Normandy, 
his  mother  from  Lorraine,  and  the  pair  were  in 
humble  circumstances.  After  spending  part  of  his 
childhood  with  a relative  at  Beauvais,  the  boy  Rodin 
returned  to  Paris  when  he  was  fourteen,  and  was 
sent  to  La  Petite  Ecole  de  Dessin^  No,  5 Rue  de  V Ecole 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


15 


de  Medecine^  a school  for  young  craftsmen,  which 
had  numbered  among  its  students  such  men  as 
Fremiet,  Carpeaux,  Dalou,  and  seems  to  have  been 
a nursery  for  many  artists  who  have  liberated  them- 
selves from  the  purely  academic  influence.  There, 
Mile.  Judith  Cladel  tells  us  that  he  copied  the 
models  of  animals,  of  flowers,  of  plants,  and  under- 
took a course  in  modelling.  He  also  made  drawings 
from  the  antique  at  the  Louvre.  At  the  Biblio- 
th^que  Imperiale  he  was  permitted  to  look  at 
albums  of  prints  after  Michelangelo,  Raphael,  and 
others.  His  time  at  la  Petite  Ecole  was  not  spent 
without  honour.  He  gained  a bronze  medal  for 
drawing  from  the  cast ; and  at  seventeen  a first 
bronze  medal  for  modelling,  and  a second-class 
silver  medal  for  drawing  from  the  antique.  But 
he  failed  in  the  competition  for  a place  in  drawing 
and  modelling  at  the  Beaux-Arts,  a failure  of  some 
significance  in  view  of  his  later  tendencies.  He 
also  attended  a class  of  Barye  at  the  Museum. 
That  sums  up  the  whole  course  of  his  academic 
training. 

For  the  rest,  he  was  poor  and  had  to  make  a 
living,  or,  at  least,  to  contribute  towards  his  liveli- 
hood. He  mixed  plaster,  cut  off  the  mould  marks 


i6 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


from  plaster  and  papier-mach6  casts,  performed  the 
general  duties  of  a scullion,  and  made  occasionally  a 
simple  ornament  for  which  he  received  the  luxurious 
salary  of  forty  cents  a day.”  * Later,  he  found  for 
himself  a kind  of  studio  in  a stable,  and  modelling 
from  the  head  of  some  casual  vagrant,  produced 
after  eighteen  months’  work  the  mask  of  The  Man 
with  a Broken  Nose,  This  astonishing  instance  of 
precocity,  this  mask  which  might  have  been  the 
head  of  a dilapidated  Greek  poet,  was  rejected  by 
the  Salon  of  1864,  be  accepted  fourteen 

years  later,  and  to  win  perhaps  as  large  a share  of 
celebrity  as  any  work  of  modern  sculpture.  Mean- 
while, Rodin  was  working  for  an  ornament-maker, 
for  a jeweller,  and  for  himself,  modelling  figures,  of 
which  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  value,  as  he 
could  not  afford  to  carry  the  work  further  than  the 
clay.  He  was  engaged  by  an  ornamentist  to  under- 
take work  at  Marseilles,  and,  later,  by  a marchand 
de  bons  dieux^  on  work  at  Strasbourg ; but  always 
using  his  leisure  in  the  cultivation  of  his  native 
and  original  talent.  In  1863  be  formed  a connec- 
tion with  Carrier  Belleuse  (whose  Hebe  in  the 
Luxembourg  may  be  recalled),  the  most  extensive 

* Mr.  Bartlett  in  The  American  Architect, 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


17 


commercial  sculptor  in  Paris,  and  in  point  of  art 
rather  more  than  that ; a connection  which  lasted 
intermittently  for  nearly  twenty  years.  “I  was  very 
happy,”  says  Rodin,  to  go  to  Belleuse,  because  it 
took  me  away  from  an  ornament-maker  to  one  who 
made  figures.” 

At  my  work,”  he  says  again,  was  never  sad. 
I always  had  pleasure  in  it.  My  ardour  was  im- 
mense. I was  always  studying.  Study  embraces  it 
all.  Those  who  saw  my  things  pronounced  them 
bad.  I never  knew  what  a word  of  encouragement 
was.  The  little  terra  cotta  heads  and  figures  that 
I exposed  in  shop  windows  never  sold.  So  far  as 
the  world  went,  I was  shut  out  from  it,  nor  did  I 
know  that  it  could  be  of  use  to  me.  I went  to  the 
Salon  and  admired  the  works  of  Perraud  and  other 
leading  sculptors,  and  thought,  as  ever,  that  they 
were  great  masters,  though  in  their  sketches  I saw 
that  they  were  not  strong.  In  looking  at  the  hands 
they  made,  I thought  them  so  fine  that  I should 
never  be  able  to  equal  them.  I was  all  this  time 
working  from  Nature,  but  could  not  make  my  hands 
as  good  as  theirs,  and  I could  not  understand  why. 
But  when  I got  my  hands  all  right  from  life,  I then 
saw  that  theirs  were  not  well  made,  nor  were  they 

B 


i8 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


true.  I now  know  that  those  sculptors  worked 
from  plaster-casts  taken  from  Nature ; I thought  only 
of  copying  my  model.  I don’t  believe  these  sculptors 
knew  what  was  good  modelling  and  what  was  not, 
or  could  get  out  of  Nature  all  there  was  in  it.  As  my 
memory  was  good,  I copied  in  those  days,  at  home, 
the  pictures  I admired  at  the  Louvre.  Many  of  the 
things  I made  in  my  studio  were  better  then  than 
anything  I have  since  executed,  and,  had  I been  less 
negligent,  some  of  them  might  have  been  preserved. 
I would  now  give  many  thousands  of  francs  if  I 
could  have  some  of  those  figures.  Since  then  I have 
known  the  value  of  good  friends  ; but,  if  I could 
have  had  even  one  in  those  days,  it  might  have  been 
a world  to  me.  Then  I did  not  know  my  work  had 
any  merit  ? ” * 

When  the  Franco-German  war  broke  out  Rodin 
served  as  a corporal  in  the  National  Guard,  per- 
formed his  duties,  starved  on  horse  flesh  and  stale 
bread,  and  modelled  whenever  he  had  the  oppor- 
tunity and  the  means.  At  the  end  of  the  war  we 
find  him  at  Brussels  with  Belleuse,  working  on  the 
Cariatides  for  the  Bourse  (inside),  and  on  the  frieze 
of  the  Palais  des  Academies.  Some  trifling  matter 

* Mr.  Bartlett : The  American  Architect. 


Paris,  Miise'e  dii  Lu.\e77iboiirg 


THE  AGE  OF  BRONZE 

{ Bronze) 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


19 

of  jealously  occasioned  his  leaving  Belleuse,  and  he 
formed  a partnership  with  one  Van  Rasbourg,  a 
connection  which  was  not  unprofitable,  but  which, 
on  the  whole,  proved  unsatisfactory  and  was  soon 
terminated.  He  then  returned  to  the  more  personal 
work  of  his  own  studio.  It  was  at  this  time  (in 
1875)  that  he  was  struck  by  a quality  in  his  work 
which  recalled  the  work  of  Michelangelo  ; a quality 
which  had  occurred  spontaneously  and  which 
was  not  at  all  premeditated  imitation.  Perplexed, 
interested,  a little  startled  perhaps,  by  the  resem- 
blance, Rodin  decided  to  go  to  Italy  to  investigate 
the  cause  and  to  arrive,  if  possible,  at  the  principles 
which  governed  the  construction  of  the  Italian 
masterpieces.  Hitherto  his  theory  had  been  that 
the  controlling  factor  in  the  art  of  sculpture  was 
movement.  He  returned  from  Italy  with  the  con- 
viction that  this  principle  lay  in  the  model ; that 
the  inspiration  of  Renaissance  sculpture  was  derived 
directly  from  the  study  of  the  human  figure  ; not 
in  the  imitation  of  the  antique,  but  in  going  to  the 
same  source. 

La  premiere  chose  a laquelle  Dieu  a pense  en  creant 
le  monde^^  says  Judith  Cladel,  ‘‘si  nous  pouvons  nous 
imaginer  la  pensee  de  Dieu — c est  au  modeleP  It  was 


20 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


the  cry  of  the  Renaissance  in  all  art,  this  cry  of  the 
return  to  Nature  ; and,  at  first,  it  was  said  of  Rodin 
as  it  was  said  of  Delacroix,  if  one  may  use  a para- 
phrase, c est  la  massacre  de  la  sculpture,^^  Hence- 
forward his  studio  was  to  be  what  the  palaestra  was 
to  Pheidas  and  Praxiteles,  a field  of  observation  for 
the  human  figure  in  every  variety  of  movement. 
Inspired  by  his  observation  of  the  works  of 
Michelangelo,  of  Donatello,  of  the  antique,  Rodin 
worked  for  eighteen  months  on  the  figure  now 
known  as  the  Age  of  Bronze,”  but  to  which  his 
first,  and,  it  would  seem,  more  appropriate  title 
was  U Homme  qui  s^eveille  d la  Nature.  This 
figure  was  exhibited  in  January  1877  at  the 
Cercle  Artistique  in  Brussels,  and  its  mixed  recep- 
tion gave  Rodin  a foretaste  of  what  was  to  occur 
on  the  exhibition  of  his  later  works. 


II 

Rodin  was  now  thirty-seven,  and  had 
scarcely,  yet,  found  an  opportunity  for 
. adequate  self-expression.  His  works  in 
sculpture  amounted  to  The  Man  with  the  'Broken 
Nosey  the  head  of  a priest,  of  a doctor,  of  a young 
girl  [La  Petite  Alsacienne  completed  at  Stras- 
burg),  of  (it  is  interesting  to  note  in  view  of  La 
Porte  de  VEnfer)  a Ugolino,  the  small  unsaleable 
terra-cottas,  a few  other  works  which  perished 
in  the  clay,  and,  finally.  The  Age  of  Bronze, 
These  had  been  the  fruits  of  his  leisure,  of  the 
thought  stolen  from  the  hours  during  which  he  was 
engaged  in  carrying  out  the  ideas  of  Belleuse  and 
others.  In  view  of  the  quality  of  what  remains, 
the  loss  of  his  other  work  is  a matter  of  infinite 
regret. 

It  is  useless,  but  interesting,  to  conjecture  how  a 
more  immediate  success  might  have  affected  the 


22 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


tendency  of  Rodin’s  art ; if,  for  instance,  The 
Man  with  the  "Broken  Nose  had  been  accepted  by 
the  Salon  of  1864,  criticised  as  approximating 
to  the  modelling  of  the  Greeks,  instead  of  this 
happening  in  1878.  It  might  have  created  a storm 
v^hich  the  premature  recognition  of  genius  has  rarely 
weathered.  But  in  Rodin’s  case,  however,  it  may  be 
doubted  that  it  would  have  mattered,  any  more  than 
it  would  have  mattered  in  the  case  of  any  great 
creative  artist, — a Dante,  a Milton,  a Moliere — 
whose  art  has  been  the  irresistible  expression  of  a 
temperament  which  is,  at  root,  philosophic.  This 
sort  of  temperament,  absorbed  in  problems  of  the 
universal,  has  other  things  to  think  about  than  the 
immediate  recognition  of  its  qualities  ; or,  it  may  be 
that  when  this  combination  of  the  artistic  and  philo- 
sophic character  occurs,  the  various  qualities  exercise 
a common  sustaining  power,  which  makes  what  one 
calls  success,  if  not  a matter  of  great  indifference,  at 
least  not  a matter  of  first  importance. 

Rodin  was  still  a workman  whose  skill  and 
facility  in  the  exercise  of  his  craft  had  won  the 
admiration  of  his  comrades  ; and,  on  the  whole,  he 
was  content  to  be  a workman.  He  has  said,  that 
during  these  years  of  probation  he  was  not  conscious 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


23 


of  possessing  ability  out  of  the  common.  That 
would  seem  an  amazing  statement,  were  it  not 
realised  that  he  approached  his  work  as  a student, 
and  that  his  standard  was  high.  Possibly  but  few  of 
his  contemporaries  seemed  to  him  to  possess  ability 
out  of  the  common  ; this  is  largely  a matter  of  per- 
spective. His  life  in  Brussels  remains  with  him  a 
pleasant  memory.  He  lived  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  city  in  one  room.  There  was  a little  garden 
attached  with  a tree  in  it,  where  he  might  sit  and 
take  the  air  with  his  wife.  There  was  also  the 
larger  contentment,  the  spaciousness  of  country 
and  sky,  all  the  charm  and  suggestiveness  of  Belgian 
landscape,  which  have  provided  refreshment  and 
inspiration  for  many  artists,  to  be  obtained  in  a 
country  walk,  when  the  pleasures  of  his  little  garden 
were  exhausted.  In  this  wholly  sane  and  reason- 
able existence,  in  this  life  of  work,  of  reverie,  of 
thought,  of  detachment  from  material  things,  there 
may  have  entered  a desire  for  liberation  from  the 
bonds  which  fettered  his  complete  art  expression. 
But  Rodin  was  scarcely,  even  here,  waiting  for 
his  opportunity  ; not,  at  least,  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  waiting  to  exploit  his  talent  as  if  it  were  an 
article  of  commerce.  Suppression,  in  such  circum- 


24 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


stances,  may  be  a factor  in  self-development,  self- 
realisation,  as  it  was,  one  may  think,  in  the  case 
of  Rodin.  His  emotional  life  at  this  period  cul- 
minated in  the  symbol,  U Homme  qui  5*evetlle  a la 
Nature^^^  a foreshadowing  of  his  awakening  to  a 
personal  sense  of  Nature  which  as  time  went  on 
was  to  become  more  and  more  articulate  in 
sculpture. 

The  Age  of  Bronze  and  The  Man  with  the  Broken 
Nose^  the  latter  now  under  the  title  of  a Portrait  of 

M, , were  exhibited  at  the  Salons  of  1877  and 

1878.  Over  a quarter  of  a century  has  passed,  and 
The  Age  of  Bronze  has  become  one  of  the  familiar 
things  of  the  world — except  to  the  guardians  of  the 
gardens, of  the  Luxembourg,  as  I have  had  occasion  to 
notice.  From  its  place  in  the  Luxembourg  Gardens 
it  has  been  removed  recently  to  the  Mus6e  du  Lux- 
embourg ; and  it  may  be  mentioned  that  M.  Rodin 
prefers  the  open  air  for  the  statue,  as  sculpture,  par- 
ticularly when  it  is  cast  in  bronze,  needs  an  equal 
diffusion  of  light  which  does  not  always  exist  in  a 
gallery.  On  its  exhibition  at  the  Salon  the  figure  was 
badly  placed,  and  criticised  adversely.  But  its  posi- 
tion, and  the  commentary  which  within  a few  years 
has  become  entirely  reversed,  were  small  matters 


Photo  Mansell  Paris,  Miisee  die  Lnxemboterg 


“ST.  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST 

{Bronze) 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


25 


compared  with  the  grave  charge  that  Rodin  had 
made  his  figure  with  moulds  cast  direct  from  life. 
Rodin  found  this  accusation  sufficiently  disconcert- 
ing. The  offence  was  not  unknown  among  sculp- 
tors ; but  it  would  be  difficult  to  formulate  a charge 
more  likely  to  wound  the  feelings  of  a sculptor 
with  a conscience ; and  it  was  particularly  irrele- 
vant in  the  case  of  Rodin.  He  had  neither  money 
nor  friends  to  back  him  in  the  matter.  So  far  as 
the  world  was  concerned  he  was  merely  an  employ6 
of  Belleuse.  But,  after  all,  the  charge  was  ground- 
less, and  that  was  the  main  thing.  Photographs 
and  moulds  taken  from  his  model,  a young  Belgian 
soldier,  which  he  procured  from  Brussels,  were  not 
sufficient  to  clear  the  air.  Whereupon  Rodin 
determined  to  convince  his  opponents  by  producing 
a figure,  equally  true  to  Nature,  but  on  a larger 
scale  than  life.  This  figure,  St.  "John  the  Baptist.^ 
was  exhibited  at  the  Salon  two  years  later. 

Meanwhile,  M.  Edmond  Turquet  was  in  1879 
appointed  Under  Secretary  of  State  for  Fine  Arts. 
He  had  been  attracted  by  The  Age  of  Bronze  at  the 
Salon.  Convinced  of  its  genuineness,  he  proceeded 
on  his  appointment  to  investigate  the  charge  which 
had  been  made  against  Rodin,  and  delegates  were 


26 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


sent  to  Brussels  to  see  the  model.  Further,  and 
independently  of  the  minister,  a group  of  artists, 
with  M.  Paul  Dubois  at  their  head  (he  had  visited, 
with  the  sculptor  Chapuis,  Rodin  at  his  studio),  sent 
a letter  to  M.  Turquet  stating  that  loin  avoir  fait 
un  moulage  sur  nature^  M,  Rodin  a crie  une  tres  belle 
figure  et  quHl  sera  un  grand  sculpteur^'^  ^ Among  the 
signatories  to  the  letter  were  Carrier  Belleuse,  Lap- 
lanche,  Falguiere,  Chaplin,  and  Chapuis. 

The  upshot  of  the  attack,  and  of  the  discussion 
which  it  occasioned,  gave  Rodin  a larger  share  of 
celebrity  than  he  was  likely,  as  yet,  to  have  derived 
merely  from  the  merit  of  his  work.  It  provided 
him  with  a public,  with  friends,  and — with  what, 
perhaps,  was  of  more  importance  in  vitalising  his 
temperament, — plenty  of  hostility.  He  was  finally 
vindicated  completely,  and  the  purchase  of  the 
statue  by  the  State  was  the  last  word  in  the  matter. 

* Judith  Cladel  ; Auguste  Rodin. 


Ill 

IN  1877  visited  the  French  Cathe- 

drals, those  precious  links  in  the  continuity 
of  plastic  thought  in  France — a continuity 
in  v^hich  is  the  most  individual  manifestion  of  the 
genius  of  the  French  race.  In  painting,  in  the 
arts  of  literature  and  the  drama,  even  in  archi- 
tecture, France  has  her  rivals,  equal  in  performance 
if  various  in  kind.  But  in  the  art  of  sculpture,  from 
mediaeval  times  to  the  present  day,  the  tradition  has 
been  preserved  as  in  no  other  country.  The 
effloresence  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  with  its 
gallery  of  splendid  achievement,  a quarry  from 
which,  later,  the  sculptors  of  ^^France  persistently 
derived,  was,  in  comparison,  the  expression  of  a 
period  which  may  be  comprised  within  a circle 
of  dates  like  our  own  Elizabethan  literature.  In 
France  the  circle  is  indefinitely  extended.  Prior 
even  to  the  Italian  Renaissance,  anticipating  its 


28 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


breadth,  its  qualities,  both  structural  and  psycho- 
logical, is  there  not  the  Philip  the  Bold  of  Claux 
Sluter  at  Dijon,  which,  like  the  Colleoni  of  Veroc- 
chio  and  Leopardi  at  Venice,  would  seem  to  express 
not  merely  the  spirit  and  life  of  an  individual,  of 
a type,  but  of  a race  and  a generation  ? The 
sculptures  of  the  Gothic  period,  which  Rodin  had 
now  set  forth  to  examine,  are,  like  the  sculptures  of 
the  Panathenaic  freize,  mainly  decorative,  subordi- 
nate to  the  architecture  ; but  there,  of  course,  the 
comparison  ends.  Gothic  sculpture — subservient  as 
it  was  to  a larger  purpose,  an  elemental  form,  as  yet, 
which  was  to  give  birth  to  the  pure  sculpture  of  the 
Renaissance, — was,  nevertheless,  a living  art,  of 
individual  and  high  cultivation. 

Rodin’s  St.  yohn  the  Baptist^  exhibited  at  the 
Salon  of  1880,  would  seem  almost  to  have  been 
achieved  under  the  influence  of  the  memory  of  his 
visit  to  Chartres  and  Rheims.  Incomparably  more 
accomplished  in  technique  it  suggests  something  of 
the  Gothic  spirit.  It  has  been  called  a protest 
against  academic  influences  ; but  one  may  believe 
that  neither  here  nor  in  any  of  his  work  was  Rodin 
solely  animated  by  any  such  feeling.  His  lack  of 
sympathy  for  the  scholarly  and  conventional  in 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


29 


French  sculpture  found  expression  in  a more  deter- 
mined insistence  on  his  own  point  of  view  ; it  may- 
have  helped  him  to  find  himself.  And  without  the 
school,  the  associated,  scholarly  influence,  which  has 
existed  in  France  since  the  days  of  Louis  XIV,,  a 
Rodin,  just  as  a Fr^miet  or  a Carpeaux,  might  have 
been  impossible.  The  school  provided  a mi/ieu  for 
the  rebel. 

But  if  the  creation  of  Sf.  John  the  Baptist  is 
attributed  to  Gothic  influences,  it  must  be  with 
many  reservations.  For  here,  as  indeed  in  all 
Rodin’s  work,  may  be  observed  a curious,  almost 
elusive,  eclecticism.  Je  suis  dans  la  tradition  des 
primitifs^^  he  has  said,  des  Egyptiens^  des  Grecs^  des 
Romains,  Je  me  suis  simplement  applique  d copier  la 
nature.  Je  Pinterprete  comme  je  la  vois^  selon  mon 
temperament.^  ma  sensibiUte\  d* apres  les  sentiments  qd elle 
evoque  en  moi.  Je  dai  pas  cherche  d P arranger .^je  ne 
lui  aipas  applique  les  lois  de  la  composition.^  je  ne  me  suis 
pas  astreint  d harmoniser  ses  mouvements.  Je  Pai 
observee  et  je  Pai  saisi  dans  son  plein  abandon.^  dans  sa 
pleine  vie.^  dans  sa  pleine  harmonieP^  * 

In  this  direct  approach  to  Nature  may  perhaps 
be  found  the  secret  of  Rodin’s  eclecticism  ; for 

* Claris  (E.),  ‘^‘De  rimpressionnisme  en  sculpture.” 


30 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


nature  herself  is  eclectic.  A contemporary  model 
may  present  the  same  aspect  as  a model  for  the 
Assyrian  reliefs  presented  to  the  sculptors  of  that 
day ; or  may  there  not  be  the  same  measure  in  his 
stride  as  in  that  of  an  Egyptian  king  ? In  speaking 
of  Nature,  Rodin,  with  great  simple-mindedness, 
would  seem  to  leave  himself  out  of  account.  He 
says,  in  effect,  that  you  merely  have  to  look  at 
things  and  the  rest  comes  of  itself,  according  to  your 
temperament.  He  says  further — and  he  insists  on 
the  point — that  he  has  no  preconceived  ideas  with 
regard  to  his  subject.  The  model  suggests  the  subject. 
But  this  seeing  of  things  for  oneself  is,  after  all,  the 
most  considerable  achievement  of  an  artist.  Imagin- 
ation in  its  highest  expression  is  the  realisation  ot 
the  actual,  of  what  exists,  of  what  is  before  one’s 
eyes,  or  of  that  which  it  connotes.  It  is  not  a 
matter  of  invention,  but  of  seeing.  There  is 
nothing  to  which  one  is  so  blind  as  the  obvious  ; 
nothing  we  find  so  difficuit  to  apprehend  as  our  own 
emotions.  A Michelangelo,  a Turner,  a Balzac,  or 
a Dickens,  provide  generations  with  eyes  and 
emotions.  And  Rodin’s  view  of  Nature  is  so 
sweeping,  so  comprehensive,  so  pantheistic  really, 
and  yet  a view  so  natural  to  himself,  himself  une 


Paris,  Masre  da  Ljixeinbonri^ 


LA  PENSEE 


1 


I 


i 

I 

i 

1; 


! 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


31 


force  de  la  nature  ” (as  he  has  been  called),  that  he 
seems  a little  oblivious  of  the  importance  of  the 
temperament  in  connection  with  the  creation  of 
a work  of  art.  For,  look  at  it  how  one  may,  it  is 
the  artist’s  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things  which 
produces  the  work  of  art.  He  selects  the  model  in 
the  first  instance,  and  seizes  the  moment  which 
appeals  to  him  as  the  right  moment. 

But  an  artist  may  approach  Nature  in  various 
ways.  5/.  yohn  the  Baptist  is  a theme  on  which 
many  sculptors  have  played.  There  are,  for 
instance,  the  two  St,  Johns  of  Donatello ; and 
here,  one  feels,  that  the  sculptor  was  moved  by 
religious  fervour  and  belief,  by  an  abstract  conception 
of  the  Precursor,  while  using  the  symbols  associated 
with  St.  John,  and  clothing  him  after  the  manner 
in  which  he  lived.  The  splendid  qualities  of  his 
art  were  put  humbly  to  the  service  of  the  realisation 
of  a religious  conception.  With  Rodin  the  process, 
we  fancy,  was  entirely  different.  His  St.  John  is 
perfectly  satisfactory  as  an  interpretative  figure ; 
criticism  at  least  has  been  content  to  accept  it  from 
that  point  of  view.  But  is  it  the  whole  point  of 
view  ? He  starts  from  the  concrete,  from  Nature 
herself,  from,  in  fact,  the  model. 


32 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


Donatello  appeals  to  truth  from  the  abstract ; 
Rodin  to  the  abstract  from  truth.  The  one  says, 
in  effect,  here  is  St.  John  ; the  other,  here  is  a 
figure  which  a literary  friend  says  represents  St. 
John.  In  one  case  the  definite  title  is  appropriate; 
in  the  other,  it  is  not  perhaps  of  so  much  importance. 
It  is  possibly  not  carrying  the  distinction  too  far,  to  say 
that  Donatello  appeals  to  one’s  artistic  sense  through 
the  emotions  occasioned  by  his  realisation  of  the 
Baptist,  and  Rodin  through  the  verisimilitude 
of  his  figure,  apart  from  any  preconceived  ideas. 
The  realisation  of  truth  in  a matter  of  aesthetics 
is  an  intellectual  adventure,  of  which  we  are  only 
beginning  to  realise  the  importance.  Nothing,” 
Rodin  has  said,  “ is  ugly  that  has  life.  . . . What- 
ever suggests  human  emotion,  whether  of  grief  or 
pain,  goodness  or  anger,  hate  or  love,  has  its  indi-- 
vidual  seal  of  beauty.  Therefore,  since  I hold  all 
existence  to  be  beautiful,  and  all  beauty  to  be 
truth — on  a bien  le  droit  de  choisir  parmi  les  choses 
vraies^^  ^ 

A smaller  figure  of  St.  John,  in  bronze,  incom- 
plete, without  the  head  and  arms,  may  be  referred 
to  here  ; as  it  helps,  I think,  to  explain  an  attitude 

* Pall  Mall  Magazine^  1901?  P*  26. 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


33 


of  Rodin  which  is  imperfectly  understood.  This 
incomplete  figure  represents,  just  as  adequately  as 
the  complete  figure,  his  theories  with  regard  to  the 
principles  of  movement  and  modelling  in  sculpture. 
It  is  a synthesis  of  his  views  in  this  respect.  And, 
as  the  complete  figure,  in  this  instance,  has  been 
achieved  and  labelled,  he  cannot  very  well  be 
accused  of  artistic  incompetence,  or  of  failing 
inspiration.  Obviously  Rodin  himself  regards  the 
dismembered  St.  John,  cast  in  bronze  and  to  a 
smaller  scale,  as  sufficiently  fulfilling  the  purposes 
of  his  art.  And  if  the  starting-point  in  art  is 
Nature,  in  which  Tinsecte  vaut  un  monde,  il  a 
autant  coiit6,”  one  may  account  for  the  aesthetic 
satisfaction  we  derive  from  a bronze  figure  deprived 
of  its  head  and  arms.  Who  would,  for  instance, 
maintain  that  a torso  of  Praxiteles  was  not  worth 
more  than  galleries  of  completed  and  labelled 
sculpture  ? Or,  in  painting,  who  would  ask,  in  a 
representation  of  inanimate  nature,  that  the  tree 
should  be  extended  to  its  topmost  twig  or  farthest 
branch  ? Art,  it  is  well  to  remember,  is  not  the 
actual  thing,  but  a representation  of  the  actual 
thing,  that  is  to  say,  of  Nature.  A completed 
figure  in  sculpture  can,  therefore,  only  suggest  the 


34 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


complete  figure,  as  it  is  not  the  actual  figure  ; and 
a torso  may  be  thus  as  suggestive  of  the  complete 
figure  as  the  complete  figure  itself. 

Apart  from  this,  it  is  within  the  province  or 
a sculptor  to  represent  a torso  as  it  is  for  him  to 
represent  a bust.  Is  not  the  completeness  of  a work 
of  art  the  representation  of  that  which  is  complete 
in  the  artist’s  mind  ? and  in  sculpture,  what  Mr. 
Freeman  calls  “the  sensationed  impression”  of  a 
torso  may  be  equal  to  that  derived  from  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  whole  figure.  Rodin,  in  one  respect 
if  in  no  other,  suggests  a parallel  with  the  Greeks  ; 
for  if  only  fragments  of  the  statue  of  St.  John 
remained  each  would  possess  an  artistic  value  for 
the  perfection  of  its  modelling. 

St.  John  the  Baptist  was  exhibited  at  the  Salon 
of  1882  together  with  the  Age  of  Bronze,  now 
cast  in  bronze  and  in  the  possession  of  the  State. 
For  these  exhibits  Rodin  was  awarded  a medal  ot 
the  third  class. 


IV 

IN  1879  Carrier  Belleuse  was  appointed  art 
director  of  the  Sevres  Porcelain  Works.  He 
engaged  Rodin  to  decorate  vases  ; and  one 
of  his  vases,  purchased  by  the  State,  is  preserved 
in  the  Sevres  Museum,  It  was  about  this  time 
(1879)  that  Rodin  took  part  in  a competition  to 
commemorate  la  Defense  Nationale^  an  echo  of 
the  Franco-German  War.  The  sketch  which  he 
submitted  was  not,  according  to  Mile.  Cladel, 
included  among  the  first  thirty  chosen  by  the  jury 
for  further  consideration, 

Rodin  had  been  through  the  siege  of  Paris.  He 
had  known  and  realised  the  horrors  of  war  ; and  it 
did  not  present  itselt  to  him  in  symbolic  and  plastic 
form  as  a pyramid  capped  by  an  ideal  figure,  sur- 
rounded by  animated  and  graceful  nudities.  Le 
Genie  de  la  Guerre  dominates  the  group.  This  is  a 
winged  figure  with  vibrant  outstretched  arms  \ the 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


36 

evil  face  is  contorted  with  passion,  and  the  mouth 
is  hurling  forth  invectives  of  blood  and  misery. 
One  wing  is  broken,  and  at  the  knees  is  the  bent 
figure  of  a wounded  soldier,  superbly  modelled, 
supporting  himself  on  his  broken  sword.  The 
group  is  as  dramatic  as  war  itself ; war,  not  as 
conquest,  not  as  glory,  but  as  tragedy.  Placed  in 
the  position  for  which  it  was  intended,  Le  Rond 
Point  de  Courhevoie^  such  a group  would  have  kept  the 
memory  of  a terrible  time  an  open  wound.  Rodin 
failed  also  to  be  selected  in  another  competition  for 
a bust  of  the  Republic.  Himself  a man  of  the 
people,  he  saw  forces  which  make  both  for  good  and 
evil  in  democratic  government  ; and  it  was  scarcely 
likely  that  an  impartial  conception  would  be  appre- 
ciated by  a partial  jury. 

But  an  event  occurred  about  this  time  (1880) 
which  marked  the  turning-point  in  Rodin’s  career  ; 
an  event  which  not  only  gave  him  liberty  for  the 
free  and  unrestrained  exercise  of  his  art  ; but  which, 
one  may  think,  largely  affected  the  tendencies  of 
much  of  his  later  work,  M.  Turquet,  who  had 
befriended  him  in  the  matter  of  The  Age  of  Bronze^ 
now  offered  him  a commission  for  an  important 
public  work,  the  great  door  for  the  Mmce  des 


Paris,  Micse'e  dn  L 2(xemdotcr^ 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


37 


Arts  Decoratifs^  upon  which  Rodin  has  been  in- 
termittently engaged  ever  since,  and  which  has 
as  yet  to  be  completed.  This  commission  pro- 
vided him  with  a studio  at  the  Government’s 
expense,  and  with  sufficient  means  to  carry  out  his 
work. 

The  initial  idea  of  the  subject  or  the  door  was, 
that  it  should  be  derived  from  the  cantos  of  Dante’s 

Inferno,”  and  called  La  Porte  de  PEnfer  ; an  idea 
which  has  not  been  quite  fulfilled,  but  which  at 
the  time  was  congenial  to  Rodin.  It  would,  at 
any  rate,  serve  as  a starting-point.  He  still  felt  the 
sting  of  the  accusation  of  having  cast  his  figure  from 
the  model,  and  the  motives  of  the  subject  were 
susceptible  of  treatment  at  various  scales,  in  the 
round,  in  high  and  low  reliefs,  in  which  his 
sheerly  technical  honesty  would  be  made  manifest. 
So  that  one  of  the  most  imaginative  achievements 
of  modern  sculpture  had  its  origin  largely  in  the 
desire  or  the  artist  to  clear  up  an  obvious  and 
absurd  misrepresentation.  ne  crois  pas^^  says 

M.  Edouard  Rod,  “ quHl  existe^  en  sculpture^  une  page 
plus  doquentey  ni  plus  variee^^ 

The  height  of  the  door  is  about  eighteen 
feet.  It  is  dominated  by  three  figures,  the  Three 


38 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


Phantoms^  imaginatively  grouped  so  that  the  visible 
shadows  help  to  emphasise  the  sense  of  destiny,  of 
pity,  the  mystery  of  contemplative  and  controlling 
elements,  which  they  express.  Below,  projecting 
from  the  frieze,  is  the  figure  of  The  Thinker  [Le 
Penseur)^  originally  intended  for  Dante,  but  happier 
in  its  generic  title.  This  figure  is  approached  on 
each  side  by  a procession  entering  the  gate.  On 
the  Door  itself,  on  its  vague  and  plastic  background, 
are  represented  the  various  circles  (but  not  those 
of  the  cantos)  of  human  tribulation.  On  the  narrow 
pilasters,  at  either  side,  are  represented  symbols  of 
achieved  and  defeated  passion. 

A beautiful  disorder,  M.  Roger  Miles  has  said,  is  an 
effect  of  art ; certainly  here  in  this  gesticulation  of  the 
flesh,  in  the  varying  motifs  united  by  a common  ynotij 
represented  by  Lasciate  ogni  speranza^  voi  cJi^entrate^ 
there  is  a complete  effect.  Here,  at  any  rate,  in 
his  audacious  use  of  the  nude  Rodin  shows  a com- 
plete mastery  of  his  material.  So  far,  indeed,  as 
the  general  scheme  is  concerned  (and  one  would 
not  push  the  comparison  further  in  view  of  the 
unfinished  state  of  the  work)  it  is  a more  logical 
expression  of  purely  plastic  thought  than  the  bronze 
gates  of  Ghiberti  of  the  Baptistery  of  Florence, 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


39 


which  are  rather  pictorial  than  sculpturesque.  The 
portal  in  this  instance  provides  a frame  for  a 
series, — a wonderful  series, — of  small  pictures,  each 
one  of  which  is  in  itself  an  independent  work  of  art. 
The  Door  of  Rodin  represents  a complete  idea,  a 
rhythm  with  varying  motives ; it  is  an  epic  of 
human  weakness,  human  destiny,  the  futility  or 
human  desire. 

The  conception,  as  a whole,  can  hardly  be  said 
to  be  Dantesque,  although  it  follows  the  Inferno  in 
general  idea  and  in  some  points  of  detail.  Rodin 
was  also  largely  influenced  by  Baudelaire,  ‘‘  le  mis- 
anthrope de  la  vie  coupable,”  in  whose  Fleurs  du 
mal  he  discovered  some  affinity  to  Dante.  It  seems 
a far  cry  from  the  serene,  essentially  religious, 
view  of  Dante  to  the  morbid  paganism  of  the 
French  decadent.  Vune  vient  de  Cenfer^  r autre 
y as  a French  writer  has  said.  Rodin  would 
seem  to  have  assimilated  the  spirit  of  both  Dante 
and  Baudelaire,  and,  finally,  while  borrowing  from 
each,  to  have  arrived  at  a personal  point  of  view : 
The  Door,  in  fine,  is  Rodinesque. 

Dante’s  Inferno  is  documentary.  Animated  by 
didactic  religious  faith,  he  has  peopled  his  circles 
with  historic  persons,  who  suffer  the  torments  or 


40 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


hell  as  conceived  by  a religious  visionary  of  the 
thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century.  Baudelaire,  on 
the  other  hand,  modern,  pagan,  a virtuoso  or 
sensations,  seeking  experiences  rather  than  ex- 
periencing life,  sincere  as  an  artist,  and  a little 
affected  in  most  other  directions,  discovered  Limbo 
without  having  crossed  the  Acheron.  It  existed 
in  his  imagination,  in  his  life. 

Rodin  has  given  shape  to  two,  at  least,  of  the 
most  important  passages  in  the  Inferno.  There 
are  Paolo  and  Francesco,  those  two  who  go 
together,  and  seem  to  be  so  light  upon  the  wind,” 
and  there  are  Count  Ugolino  and  his  sons.  Virgil, 
however,  is  not  represented  ; and  Rodin  could  not 
see  Beatrice  in  the  nude.  The  Ugolino  group 
depicts  the  brutal  horror  of  the  incident,  but  not 
at  its  moment  of  greatest  horror,  where  Dante  and 
Virgil  discover  Ugolino  gnawing  at  the  head  of  his 
enemy  Ruggieri.  The  Count  is  represented  nude, 
blind,  crawling  on  his  knees,  his  hands  groping 
over  the  bodies  of  his  sons.  In  his  own  words, 
When  we  had  come  to  the  fourth  day,  Gaddo  flung 
himself  down  outstretched  at  my  feet,  saying,  ‘ My 
father,  why  dost  thou  not  help  me.’  There  he  died, 
and  as  thou  seest  me,  so  saw  I the  three  sink  down 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


41 


one  by  one  between  the  fifth  and  sixth  days  ; 
then,  already  blind,  I betook  me  to  grope  about 
over  each  of  them,  and  for  three  days  I called  upon 
them  when  they  were  dead  ; after  which  want  of 
food  effected  more  than  sorrow.”  The  Door,  as 
has  been  said,  is  as  yet  unfinished.  Rodin  lingers 
over  it  as  a poet  lingers  over  a poem,  eliminating, 
revising,  recasting,  always  seeking  for  a more  perfect 
expression. 

In  an  aim  before  all  of  his  studies,”  says  M.  Rod, 
speaking  in  an  intimate  study  of  the  Door,  he 
sought  the  occasion  of  bringing  together  various 
compositions,  with  figures  restrained  and  in  move- 
ment. At  that  moment,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  full 
maturity  of  his  art,  M.  Rodin,  as  formerly  Delacroix, 
did  not  think  that  he  could  find  expression  other- 
wise than  in  movement : later  he  recognised  that 
there  was  something  dangerous  and  false  in  this 
theory.  Movement,  in  effect,  is  only  compatible 
in  a certain  degree  with  the  exigences  and  means 
of  the  plastic  arts : there  are  movements  which  it 
is  imprudent  or  impossible  to  attempt  to  represent, 
because  they  are  fugitive,  and  cannot  be  fixed.” 
Possibly  here  M.  Rod  was  thinking  of  Lessing’s 
statement  that  sculpture  should  express  nothing 


42 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


that  can  be  thought  of  as  transitory.  M.  Rodin 
said  formerly,”  M,  Rod  continues,  U eloquence  de 
la  sculpture  est  dans  le  mouvementr  He  says  to-day : 
U eloquence  de  la  sculpture  est  dans  le  modele^^  * 

* Gazette  des  ^eux  ArtSy  1898,  vol.  i.  p.  421. 


V 

The  Commission  for  la  'Porte  de  PEnfer 
provided  Rodin  with  the  opportunity  to 
express  himself.  Hitherto  we  have 
known  him  by  The  Man  with  the  Broken  Nose^ 
by  his  St,  ^John^  and  The  Age  of  Bronze — ^each, 
speaking  broadly,  a manifestation  of  the  actual  in 
art.  But  the  conception  of  the  Door  seemed  to  give 
wings  to  his  plastic  thought ; to  open  the  way  to  a 
a range  or  new  ideas. 

The  Door  itself,  decorative,  necessarily  subordi- 
nate to  a structural  idea,  restricted  in  point  of  scale, 
was  a conception  of  spiritual  things  which  contained 
elements  susceptible  of  independent  treatment.  The 
Three  Phantoms  and  The  Thinker,^  necessary  as  they 
are  to  the  whole  composition,  are  admirable  as  inde- 
pendent works,  and  to  a larger  scale.  The  Thinker,^ 
which  in  its  pose  so  obviously  recalls  II  Pensieroso 
of  the  Medicean  tombs,  gains  in  effectiveness 


44 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


and  power  with  the  larger  treatment ; and  the  in- 
creased scale  of  the  Three  Phantoms  adds  to  their 
portentous  and  fateful  aspect.  In  dealing  with  an 
abstract  idea, — particularly  with  ideas  of  such  a 
mystical  and  grandiose  kind  as  those  expressed 
in  The  Thinker  and  the  Three  Phantoms^  meta- 
physical ideas  of  destiny  and  fate, — scale  itself 
may  be  an  element  of  some  importance.  But  with 
a group  like  the  Ugolino  it  is  different.  In  the 
concrete  presentment  of  an  incident,  terrible  as  it 
may  be,  where  the  emotions  are  definite  and  com- 
prehensible, where  the  idea  is  essentially  dramatic, 
the  larger  scale  does  not  broaden  the  effect  ot  the 
idea.  And  one  feels  that  the  crawling  figure  of 
Ugolino  gains  nothing  in  tragic  suggestiveness  in  its 
monumental  shape. 

With  M.  Turquet’s  important  commission,  the 
life  of  Rodin  as  a workman, — as  the  skilled  inter- 
preter of  the  ideas  of  Carrier  Belleuse  and  others, — 
came  to  an  end.  Within  a couple  of  years  his 
works  were  exhibited  in  London,  Vienna,  Pau;  and 
The  Age  of  Bronze  had  been  placed  in  the  gardens  of 
the  Luxembourg.  In  the  Salon  of  i88i  the 
Creation  of  Man  was  exhibited.  A year  later  there 
appeared  his  busts  of  y.  P.  Laurens  and  Carrier 


Paris,  Muse'e  dti  Luxembourg 


BUST  OF  JEAN-PAUL  LAURENS 

{Bronze) 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


45 


Belleuse^ — the  beginning  of  a remarkable  series  in 
portraiture,  which  has  included  Henley,  Rochefort, 
Legros,  Puvis  de  Chavannes,  Octave  Mirbeau, 
Roger  Marx,  Victor  Hugo,  and  others.  And 
in  this  phase  of  his  art,  opinion,  which  is  so  much 
at  variance  in  regard  to  the  other  phases,  meets 
on  a common  ground.  To  find  a series,  or  even 
individual  works,  possessing  the  insight  which  gives 
not  only  a likeness,  but  a biography  with  multi- 
tudinous annotations,  one  must  go  back  to  the 
Diderot,  the  Voltaire,  the  Franklin,  the  Moliere 
of  Houdon,  to  the  portrait  busts  of  the  Italian 
Renaissance,  or  to  the  Romans. 

Rodin’s  genius,  now  unfettered,  began,  further, 
to  find  voluminous  and  splendid  expression  in  such 
works  as  Le  Baiser^  UEternel  PrintempSy  the  Eve^ 
the  Monuments  of  Victor  Hugo^  Bastien  Lepage^  the 
Bourgeois  of  Calais^  the  Balzac;  and  in  such  mystical 
subjects  as  Le  crepuscule  descendant  dans  la  nuit^  La 
mmre  ou  la  fatigue^  La  parque  et  la  jeune  fille^  La  main 
de  Dieuy  and  so  on,  which,  as  they  were  exhibited, 
puzzled  an  interested,  but  largely  inimical,  public. 
The  general  view  of  his  work  may  be  said  to  have 
followed  an  evolutionary  course,  not  infrequent  in 
the  case  of  art  which  makes  for  any  sort  or 


46 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


permanence.  The  successive  stages  of  this  public 
recognition  may  be  classed  briefly  as,  at  first,  active 
disapproval,  then  curiosity  as  to  meaning,  later 
a recognition  that,  after  all,  the  work  may  mean  some- 
thing^ and,  finally,  a concession  that  it  is  extremely 
original,  or  that  it  possesses  beauty  and  power  ; or 
that  it  is  an  outrage  on  all  the  canons  of  art. 
That,  in  a general  way,  may  be  said  to  summarise 
the  critical  process  in  regard  to  creative  work 
which  does  not  follow  the  official  path ; a process 
in  France  made  sufficiently  familiar  to  men  of  genius 
like  Delacroix,  Carpeaux,  and  Rude,  and,  more 
recently,  to  Rodin.  In  turning  over  the  pages  of 
criticism,  it  is  curious  to  find  an  eminent  English 
critic  and  scholar  denouncing  Carpeaux’s  group  at 
the  Opera  on  the  score  of  pruriency.  In  the  con- 
sideration of  art  matters  in  France,  however,  one 
cannot  reckon  without  taking  into  account  the 
influence  of  the  State  ; and  this  influence  of  depart- 
mental control  in  certain  matters  in  relation  to 
fine  art  has  been  a power  for  good. 

The  self-respecting  qualities  of  a nation  may  be 
largely  estimated  by  the  degree  of  its  concern  tor 
art.  It  is  a tribute  to  the  French  that  the  affairs 
of  an  artist  may  become  an  affair  of  State  ; that 


Paris,  Mtcse'e  dii  Liix^jndoiirg 


LE  BAISER 
{^Marble) 


X.: 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


47 


genius  is  recognised  as  a national  possession,  a 
precious  national  asset,  if  you  will,  which  it  may  be 
desirable  to  care  for,  encourage,  and  subsidise  for 
the  honour  and  glory  of  the  country.  This  prac- 
tical realisation  that  a man  of  genius  is  not  merely 
an  independent  person,  with  or  without  a studio,  in 
which  to  live  or  starve  (as,  indeed,  he  has  starved 
even  in  Paris),  but  that  his  art  is  a well  spring,  a 
source  of  national  enlightenment,  fostering  the 
sensitive  and  estimable  qualities  of  the  race  down 
through  infinite  generations,  adds  greatly  to  one’s 
conception  of  the  logic  and  fine  intelligence  of  the 
French  temperament.  It  was  largely  due  to  this 
wise  and  paternal  supervision  that  Rodin’s  existence 
as  an  artist  (although  rather  late  in  the  day)  became 
possible.  The  State,  through  its  expert,  M.Tur- 
quet,  had  purchased  The  Age  of  Bronze ; it  had  given 
him  the  commission  for  the  Door  ; and,  later,  it 
purchased  four  of  his  works — St,  John  the  Baptist^ 
the  aged  figure  in  bronze,  EUe  qui  fut  Heaulmiere^ 
Madame  Roll^  and  the  group  which  is  probably  the 
most  generally  familiar  and  popular  of  his  works, 
Le  Baiser ; all  of  which  are  now  on  view  in  the 
Luxembourg. 

Le  Baiser  is  the  variation  of  a theme  which 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


48 

Rodin  has  expressed  in  Le  Printemps^  and  in  that 
singularly  beautiful  group,  UEternelle  Hole;  it 
is  the  theme  of  the  eternal  man  and  woman, 
the  creation  of  a mind  which  sees  in  the  act  of  a 
lover’s  caress,  in  its  passion  and  mystery,  a universal 
and  permanent  symbol.  When  Le  Bauer  was  pur- 
chased by  the  State  in  1898,  M.  L^once  Ben6dite 
recalled  the  fact  that  it  was  not  a recent  work,  but 
— /V/7,”  he  said,  habitue  peu  a peu  inconsciem- 
merit  a des  nouveautes  qvCiL  avait  jadis  impitoyablement 
condamneesT  This  was  not  only  true  in  the  present 
instance,  but  applicable  almost  to  every  work  that 
has  come  out  of  Rodin’s  studio. 


VI 

IF  Rodin’s  relations  with  the  State,  which  in 
effect  were  the  relations  with  a Minister  of 
taste,  were  fortunate,  his  relations  with 
Municipalities — the  inexpert  representatives  of  an 
inexpert  public — and  with  one  Society,  at  least, 
were  not  so  happy.  When  in  1883  the  town  of 
Nancy,  the  capital  of  Lorraine,  decided  to  erect 
a statue  of  the  painter  Claude  Gell^e  {dit  Claude 
Lorraine)  Rodin  was  the  chosen  sculptor.  Nancy  was 
neither  Claude’s  birthplace  nor  place  of  residence ; but 
he  appears  to  have  spent  a year  in  his  early  man- 
hood there  in  colouring  the  ceiling  of  the  Carmelite 
Church.  Rodin  has  represented  Claude  standing, 
his  face  turned  to  the  east,  to  the  rising  sun, 
‘‘  Pimage  du  peintre  au  moment  ou  il  s*approprie 
les  lots  lumineusesP'*  The  figure,  strikingly  in- 
dividual, looks  as  if  it  had  walked  out  of  a canvas 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  Gellee  is  scrutinising 


D 


50 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


the  horizon,  with  an  eager,  almost  an  inspired  look. 
The  face  is  rather  typical  of  Houdon’s  manner  ; 
and  there  is  no  apparent  attempt  at  idealisation. 

Cette  statue^  nous  la  trouvons  mauvaise^  et 
pour t ant  nous  ne  sommes  pas  des  heteSy^  ex- 
claimed one  of  the  local  authorities,  according  to 
M.  Maillard,  when  it  was  exhibited  at  Nancy  ; 
and  all  the  powers  of  local  influence  were  engaged 
to  have  the  monument  removed,  although  the 
pedestal  was  generally  approved.  It  was  only 
through  the  tireless  efforts  of  M.  Roger  Marx,  and 
a M.  Galle,  that  it  was  allowed  to  retain  its  original 
position  in  the  Pepiniere  Park,  where  it  now  is, 
and  where  it  has  effected  a gradual  conquest  or 
adverse  opinion. 

Rodin  was,  meanwhile,  engaged  on  another  work 
by  which  Calais,  after  a lapse  of  some  five  hundred 
years,  sought  to  revive  a memory  of  the  patriotism 
and  chivalry  of  its  inhabitants.  One  wonders 
whether  the  memory  of  a splendid  act  of  heroism 
had  remained  with  the  people  of  Calais  over  that 
considerable  period ; or  whether  they  had  been 
stirred  by  the  comparatively  recent  revival  of  in- 
terest in  the  pages  of  Froissart?  As  Froissart  is 
not  accepted  as  an  unimpeachable  authority  by  the 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


51 


exact  historian,  it  was  possibly  the  discovery  of 
Jehan  le  Bel’s  Chronicles  which  finally  settled  the 
matterc  This  discovery  must  have  been  welcome 
to  your  true  Calesian,  as  it  confirmed  the  hitherto 
unconfirmed  story  of  the  heroism  of  the  six  burgesses. 
Froissart,  who  founded  his  Chronicles  on  those  of 
Jehan  le  Bel,  is  more  detailed  and  more  picturesque 
than  the  earlier  writer  ; but  it  is  not  quite  clear 
whether  these  qualities  are  due  to  later  information 
or  to  a sense  of  literary  eifFect.  So  far  as  the  story 
of  the  siege  of  Calais  is  concerned,  Jehan  le  Bel,  for 
instance,  only  records  the  names  or  two  of  the  six 
heroic  burgesses,  whereas  Froissart,  in  Berner’s  trans- 
lation, gives  the  names  of  four,  and  in  the  Vatican 
manuscript,  edited  by  Lettenhove,  he  gives  the 
whole  six. 

In  the  brave  and  decorative  times  or  Cressy  and 
Poitiers,  of  the  Hundred  Years  War,  many  gallant 
and  chivalrous  exploits  were  performed  in  the  heat 
of  battle  ; but  as  an  instance  of  at  once  moral  and 
undecorative  courage  that  of  the  beleaguered  citizens 
of  Calais  is  a thing  apart. 

When  Philip  of  Valois  in  the  year  1346  decamped 
from  the  hill  of  Sangate,  Edward  III.  was  left  in 
possession  of  the  field,  and  the  garrison  of  Calais  in 


52 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


a hopeless  case.  After  withstanding  a siege  or 
eighteen  months,  battered  and  starved,  Philip  had 
been  their  last  straw.  They  attempted  negotiations  ; 
the  Governor,  Lord  John  de  Vienne  mounted  the 
battlements  and  made  a sign  to  the  English  that 
he  wished  to  hold  a parley.  When  Sir  Walter 
Manny  and  Lord  Basset,  the  emissaries  of  Edward 
appeared,  Lord  John,  after  explaining  that  they  were 
most  exceedingly  straitened,”  asked  that  the  citi- 
zens might  be  allowed  to  evacuate  the  town,  to  let 
us  go  and  depart  as  we  be^  and  lette  hym  [Edward] 
take  the  towne  and  castell  and  all  the  goodes  that  be 
therein^  the  whiche  is  great  habundance.^^ 

But  Edward  had  been  held  at  bay  too  long ; the 
siege  had  cost  him  blood  and  treasure. 

Sir  Gaultyer  of  Manny  f he  said,  ye  shall  goo 
and  say  to  the  captayne  that  all  the  grace  that  he  shall 
finde  nowe  in  me  is  that  they  lette  sixe  of  the  chiefe 
burgesses  of  the  towne  come  out  bare  heeded ^ bare  foted 
and  bare  legged^  and  in  their  shertes^  with  haulters  about 
their  neckes^  with  the  kayes  oj  the  towne  and  castell  in 
their  handes^  and  lette  thevm  sixe  yelde  themselfe  purely 
to  my  wyll  and  the  resydewe  I wyll  take  to  mercyT 
When  this  message  was  communicated  to  Lord 
John  de  Vienne,  ‘Uie  went  into  the  market-place 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


S3 


and  sowned  the  common  bell.*’  Whereupon  all  the 
inhabitants,  men  and  women,  assembled  in  the  town 
hall,  and  heard  the  news.  Thanne  all  the  people 
beganne  to  wepe  and  to  make  such  sorowe^  that  there 
was  nat  so  hard  a hert  if  they  had  sene  them  but  that 
wolde  have  had  great  pytie  of  them  ; the  captayne  hym 
selfe  wepte  pyteously^  Then,  after  a short  time,  the 
most  wealthy  citizen  of  the  town,  by  name  Eustace 
de  St.  Pierre,  rose  up  and  said  : “ Sirs^  great  and 
small^  great  myschiefe  it  shulde  be  to  suffre  to  dye  suche 
people  as  be  in  this  towne^  either  by  famyn  or  otherwyse^ 
whan  there  is  a meane  to  save  theym  : I thynke  he  or 
they  shulde  have  great  merytte  of  our  Lorde  God  that 
myght  kepe  theym  fro  suche  myschiefe ; as  for  my  parte^ 
I have  so  good  truste  in  our  Lorde  God^  that  if  1 dye  in 
the  quarell  to  save  the  residewe^  that  God  wolde  pardone 
me ; wherefore^  to  save  them^  I wyll  be  the  first  to 
i)Utte  my  lyfe  in  jeopardy. 

When  he  had  thus  sayde^  every  man  worshypped 
hym^  and  dyvers  kneled  downe  at  his  fete  with  sore 
wepyng  and  sore  sighes.  Than  another  honest  burgesse 
rose  and  sayde^  I wyh  kepe  company  with  my  gossyppe 
Ewstace  ; he  was  called  fohn  Dayre.  Than  rose  up 
faques  of  Wyssant^  who  was  riche  in  goodes  and 
herytage ; he  sayd  also  that  he  wolde  holde  company 


54 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


with  his  two  cosyns ; in  likwyse  so  dyd  Teeter  oj 
IVyssant  his  brother ; and  thane  rose  two  other ; they 
sayde  they  wolde  do  the  same,  Thanne  they  went  and 
aparelled  them  as  the  kynge  desyred.  Than  the  captayne 
went  with  them  to  the  gate : ther  was  great  lament a-^ 
cyon  made  of  men^  women  and  chyldren  at  their 
departyng : than  the  gate  was  opyned  and  he  yssued  out 
with  the  vi  burgesses^  and  closed  the  gate  agayneP  * 
This,  briefly,  is  the  incident,  as  told  by 
Froissart,  which  Rodin  had  to  guide  him  in  his 
work.  The  later  events.  Queen  Philippa’s 
intercession,  the  release  and  regalement  of  the 
prisoners,  the  happy  ending,  did  not  concern  him  ; 
any  more  then  it  concerned,  at  that  moment,  the 
grim,  over-wrought,  suffering  Eustace  de  St.  Pierre 
and  his  companions.  There  was  no  bravado,  no 
affectation  of  cheerfulness  in  trying  circumstances  : 
theirs  was  heroism,  but  it  was  the  stolid  heroism  of 
defeat.  The  lives  of  the  citizens  would  be  saved, 
but  the  town  and  its  treasure  would  go  to  the  enemy. 
In  this  procession  of  bare-headed,  bare-footed  men, 
with  halters  round  their  necks,  Eustace  de  St.  Pierre, 
aged,  feeble,  dejected,  with  his  hands  falling  limply 
by  his  side,  leads  the  way  ; a picture  of  the  resigna- 

* Berner^s  Froissart. 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


55 


tion  of  age  to  the  inevitable.  To  his  left  a younger 
and  sturdier  figure,  James  Wisant,  possibly,  carries 
the  keys.  In  his  uplifted  head,  in  his  strong 
features,  in  the  fierce  compression  of  the  lips,  in  the 
strenuous  feet,  which  in  their  reluctant  progress 
seem  to  grip  the  ground,  are  indicated  the  passionate 
self-control  of  a man  who  had  otherwise  known  no 
defeat  except  in  death.  The  figure  to  the  right  of 
Eustace,  who  with  uplifted  hand  is  addressing  his 
neighbours,  bears  a family  resemblance  to  the  man 
with  the  keys  and  is  probably  his  brother,  Peter 
Wisant.  In  the  wake  of  these,  a younger  man  than 
the  rest,  less  capable  of  the  self-control  ot  his 
companions,  half  turns  towards  the  friends  whom  he 
is  leaving.  And,  again,  immediately  behind  James 
Wisant,  there  is  another  figure — Jehans  de  Fiennes 
or  Andrieus  d’Andr6 — with  his  face  buried  in  his 
hands. 

This  figure  of  lamentation  is  to  the  group  what  a 
chorus  is  to  a Greek  tragedy  ; he  is  the  theme 
which  runs  through  the  whole  composition.  Al- 
though the  monument  was  suggested  by  the  Chro- 
nicles of  Froissart,”  it  exists  as  a piece  of  sculpture 
independently  of  text.  The  six  figures,  heroic 
creatures  of  an  untoward  fate,  are  sufficiently  typical 


56 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


of  the  destiny  which  overhangs  them  and  which 
has  overhung  others.  They  have,  indeed,  started 
on  a march  which  will  take  them  farther  than  the 
English  camp  outside  the  gates  of  Calais. 

The  original  idea  of  the  committee  for  the  monu- 
ment was  to  commemorate  the  incident  by  the 
representation  of  the  figure  of  its  chief  actor, 
Eustace  de  St.  Pierre  ; and  it  is  characteristic  of 
Rodin  that  in  his  preliminary  sketch  he  should  have 
submitted  the  present  group.  This  was  a departure 
from  the  suggestion  of  the  committee,  and  it  was 
largely  a departure  from  the  tradition  of  monuments 
of  the  kind.  In  St.  Pierre’s  heroism,  Rodin  saw 
not  merely  the  act  of  an  individual,  but  the  act  of 
a community.  His  group  typifies  the  various 
characters  which  go  to  make  up  a community  : 
it  is  an  expression  in  sculpture  of  the  historic 
sense  ; it  not  only  admirably  illustrates  the  actual 
event,  but  a never  ending  procession  of  humanity. 

In  this  powerful  and  unaffected  return  to  nature, 
it  has  been  suggested  that  Rodin  may  have  arrived 
at  a new  style  for  monuments  of  the  kind.  But 
where  art  is  so  definitely  a matter  of  personal 
seeing,  iconoclastic,  and  so  utterly  frank  in  its 
expression,  it  begins  and  ends  in  itself,  and  is  but 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


57 


little  concerned  with  the  formulas  of  schools  and 
style. 

Rodin  disagreed  with  the  authorities  at  Calais  as 
to  the  position  and  the  placing  of  his  monument. 
He  desired  for  it  the  historic  association  of  the 
ancient  market-place,  and  he  wished  it  to  be  placed 
on  a column  of  some  height.  But  the  authorities 
preferred  the  Place  de  la  Poste,  and  a low  pedestal. 


VII 

Rodin  started,  as  he  ends,  with  Nature  ; 

but  between  the  two  periods  his  view 
■ has  broadened,  developed  ; Nature  has 
come  to  possess  almost  another  meaning.  From 
the  study  of  fact,  of  the  actual  thing,  there  is  a 
natural  progression  of  ideas  to  the  mystery  which 
lies  behind  it.  The  realisation  of  a fact,  as  a 
complete  thing  in  itself,  is  a very  imperfect  sort 
of  realisation.  Rodin,  in  much  of  his  earlier  work, 
was  to  some  extent  contented  with  the  fact.  In 
The  Age  of  ^ronze^  for  instance,  in  the  St.  John  the 
Baptist^  even  in  the  Claude  Gellee  monument.  In 
his  later  work  there  has  become  manifest  a deeper 
seeing  which  he  is  ever  striving  to  make  more 
articulate  in  sculpture.  Standing  in  his  studio  at 
Meudon,  where  the  work  of  his  life  is  so  largely 
represented,  one  is  affected  by  a sense  of  the  uni- 
versal. These  various  forms  and  groups  do  not 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


59 

speak  to  one,  with  the  art  of  Greece,  of  eternal 
beauty  ; but  as  it  were,  with  a suggestion  of  the  voice 
of  the  mountain  and  the  stars,  of  forces  curiously 
blending  the  primaeval  and  contemporary. 

Among  Rodin’s  later  works  (he  does  not  acknow- 
ledge a chef  (T oeuvre)  there  are  his  monument  of 
Victor  Hugo  and  his  statue  of  Balzac.  The  former 
was  exhibited  at  the  New  Salon  in  1897,  and  was 
complete  so  far  as  the  figure  of  Victor  Hugo  was 
concerned,  but  the  Muses  of  Inspiration,  Tragedy, 
and  so  forth,  and  the  group  of  Syrens  with  which  it 
is  intended  to  occupy  the  foreground,  were  only 
represented  by  two  figures  which  had  scarcely 
advanced  beyond  an  experimental  stage,  but  which 
were  sufficiently  suggestive  of  the  quality  of 
Rodin’s  work.  The  symbolic  figures  have  not 
yet  been  completed,  and  it  may  be  supposed  that 
the  sculptor  has  not  arrived  at  the  personal  seeing 
necessary  for  the  purpose.  But  these  figures,  useful 
as  they  may  be  in  the  composition  of  the  monument, 
can  add  nothing  to  the  spacious  and  splendid  con- 
ception of  Victor  Hugo  himself.  M.  Rodin  had 
many  opportunities  of  studying  his  subject  in  the 
friendly  relations  of  life.  Victor  Hugo  refused 
to  pose  to  him  5 but  consented  to  his  having 


6o 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


materials  at  hand,  so  that  any  impression  of  the 
moment  could  be  instantly  recorded.  As  a mere 
matter  of  fact  the  resemblance  can  be  tested  by 
living  memory,  by  photographs  and  portraits. 

With  the  Balzac  it  was  different.  To  those  who 
have  read  and  delighted  in  the  Comedie  Humaine^ 
it  must  seem  a surprising  fact  that  there  is  not 
extraordinary  and  voluminous  evidence  as  to  the 
details  of  the  personal  appearance  of  its  author.  The 
contrary,  however,  appears  to  be  the  case.  A sepia 
drawing  by  Louis  Boulanger  executed  about  1828, 
a portrait  in  oils  by  the  same  artist  exhibited  at  the 
Salon  of  1837,  a medallion  by  David  Angers  (now 
in  the  Louvre),  a bust  by  the  same  sculptor  on  the 
tomb  at  P^re-Lachaise,  frontispieces  by  Hedouin 
and  Bertil  to  editions  of  his  works,  a sketch  by 
Meissonier  covered  by  a subsequent  work,  and  a 
daguerreotype  destroyed  by  the  Prussians  at  Saint 
Cloud  in  1871,  would  sum  up,  according  to  M. 
Tourneaux,  all  the  evidence  of  importance  in  this 
matter.  There  is,  however,  a description  of  Balzac 
by  Lamartine  : ‘‘  Cetait^'^  he  said,  la  figure  d*un 
element^  grosse  tete^  chevaux  6par5  sur  son  collet  et  ses 
ioues  comme  une  crintere  que  le  ciseau  n^emondait  jamaisy 
tres  obtuSy  ceil  de  flammey  corps  colossal ; tl  etait  groSy 


Musee  Rodin 


BALZAC 

{Marble) 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


6i 


epais^  carre  par  la  base  et\  us  ipaules : le  corps^  les 
misses^  les  mernbres  puissants  ; beaucoup  de  V ampleur 
de  MirabeaUy  mats  nulle  lourdeur  ; il  y avait  tant 
d^dme  qdelle  portait  cela  legerement^  gaimenty  comme 
une  enveloppe  souple  et  nullement  comme  un  fardeau  ; 
ce  poids  semblait  lui  dormer  de  la  force  et  non  lui  en 
retirer  . , , Ses  bras  courtes  gesticulaient  avec  aisance  ; 
il  causait  comme  un  orateur  parlL  . . . Les  chevaux 
flottaient  sur  ce  front  en  grandes  boucles,  Les  tones 
itaient  pleines^'^  * 

Here,  then,  was  the  ground-work  on  which  Rodin 
had  to  build  his  figure.  But  this  was  not  all. 
There  was  the  Comedie  Humainey  the  expression 
of  Balzac’s  genius  in  literature.  It  would,  however, 
provide  a hazardous  element  in  the  portraiture  of 
human  greatness  if  it  might  be  premised  that  the 
qualities  of  the  mind  indicated  the  shape  of  a nose, 
the  curl  of  a lip,  or  the  angle  of  a moustache.  But, 
as  we  have  seen,  there  was  sufficient  authentic 
matter  for  Rodin  to  work  upon. 

The  statue  was  commissioned  by  the  Societe  des 
Gens  de  which,  in  the  first  instance  (in  1893), 

had  sought  the  services  of  Chapu.  But  Chapu 
died  before  his  work  was  finished,  and,  through  the 

* Lamartine  : Balzac  et  ses  ceuvresy  pp.  16,  17. 


62 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


influence  or  Zola,  who  was  the  President  of  the 
Society,  it  came  eventually  into  the  hands  of  Rodin. 
He  was  engaged  upon  the  work  for  some  five  years. 
He  read  the  Com'edie  Humaine ; he  visited  Tours 
where  Balzac  was  born  ; he  studied  the  types  of  the 
country.  He  modelled  the  head  of  a man,  who 
was  said  to  resemble  Balzac.  He  modelled  a head 
of  Balzac  as  a young  man  ; and  he  modelled  his 
subject  in  the  nude.  Meanwhile  the  statue  was 
not  forthcoming  up  to  contract  time,  and  the  Societe 
became  impatient.  When,  finally,  the  statue  was 
before  them,  they  declared  that  they  did  not 
recognise  Balzac  in  the  ebauche  of  M.  Rodin.  They 
backed  up  an  opinion,  which  was  no  doubt  a 
perfectly  honest  opinion,  by  the  questionable  pro- 
ceeding of  cancelling  the  contract. 

Public  and  critical  opinion  supported  the  view  or 
the  Society,  when  the  Balzac  was  exhibited  at  the 
Salon  of  1898.  Enfin  Rodin  s'est  trompe^^ — said  the 
critics.  C^st  un  honhomme  de  neige  ” — C^est  Balzac 
qui  est  sorti  de  son  lit  pour  recevoir  un  creamier^'* — h 
n^ a pas  d^yeux  — said  the  public,^'  The  hostility  and 
ridicule,  the  action  of  the  Societe  des  Gens  de  Lettres 
in  breaking  the  contract,  provoked,  on  the  other 

* Alexandre,  Balzac^  p.  18. 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


63 


hand,  plenty  of  sympathy.  A rich  manufacturer 
offered  to  buy  the  statue  ; committees  were  formed 
in  Brussels  and  Paris  for  the  same  purpose  ; but  at 
the  close  of  the  Salon  the  Balzac  found  its  way  back 
to  Rodin’s  studio. 

So  far  as  the  Societe  des  Gens  de  Lettres  was  con- 
cerned there  were  obviously  two  courses  open  to 
Rodin  ; to  enforce  his  legal  rights,  or  to  let  the 
matter  for  the  moment  rest.  A triumphant  law 
case  could  have  brought  him  no  consolation  ^ and 
to  pocket  the  money  of  a dissatisfied  client  would 
not  be  likely  to  commend  itself  to  an  artist  or 
Rodin’s  stamp.  In  such  matters  legal  claims  are 
only  enforced  when  other  claims  to  consideration 
are  of  small  importance.  So  incomprehensible  did 
the  figure  appear  to  the  Society,  in  fact,  that  they 
may  have  had  an  uneasy  suspicion  that  it  was  a 
little  experimental  humour  on  Rodin’s  part.  And 
even  a Society  of  3\/[ en  of  Letters  may  not  care  to 
be  fooled.  It  is  possible  that,  in  the  frank  disavowal 
of  their  legal  obligations  with  regard  to  a work  which 
they  neither!  understood  nor  liked,  the  Society’s 
attitude  compared  favourably  with  the  attitude  or 
those,  on  the  other  side,  who  instantly  discovered 
in  the  Balzac  a masterpiece,  and  who  might,  one 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


64 

feels,  have  found  the  same  qualities  in  inferior  work 
of  an  unfamiliar  kind.  There  exists  a nebulous 
kind  of  impressionism  always  ready  to  take  shape  at 
any  erratic  manifestation  in  art  or  letters.  In  the 
case  of  the  Balzac^  Rodin’s  previous  work  entitled 
him,  at  least,  to  an  effort  of  patient,  respectful,  and 
serious  comprehension.  It  was  as  absurd  to  praise 
lightly  as  it  was  to  dismiss  lightly  a work  which 
had  engaged  the  hands  and  brain  of  a man  of  genius 
for  five  years.  Since  its  exhibition  at  theNew  Salon  in 
1898  the  Balzac  has  been  familiar  to  those  who  care 
for  sculpture,  and  still  opinion  is  pretty  much  at 
issue.  But  the  statue  is  silently  fighting  its  way; 
opinion  is  coming  over  to  its  side.  Within  a short 
space,  we  may  find  that  it  has  been  taken  over 
by  the  Conseil  municipal  of  Paris,  and  placed  in  a 
position  worthy  alike  of  Balzac  and  Rodin. 

The  view  that  the  statue  is  merely  a representation 
of  the  author  of  the  Comedie  Humaine^  and  not  pre- 
cisely of  the  man,  is  scarcely  borne  out  by  the  facts. 
The  elaborate  and  detailed  studies  which  preceded  its 
creation  go  to  show  that  it  is  an  attempt  at  an  exact 
realisation  of  the  man  as  he  lived  and  worked. 
It  corresponds,  for  instance,  with  Lamartine’s  de- 
scription ; but  it  is  not  Balzac  as  he  appears  to  his 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


65 


friends,  not  quite  even  as  he  appeared  to  Lamartine. 
It  is  Balzac  in  one  of  his  prolonged  intervals  of 
self-absorption,  in  retirement,  as  ‘^the  secretary  of 
society,”  clothed  in  the  garment  which  has  caused 
so  much  amusement,  but  which  is  nevertheless  docu- 
mentary. On  le  trouvait  toujours  chez  lui  v6tu 
(Tune  large  robe  de  chamhre  de  cachemire  hlanc  doublee 
de  sole  blanche^  taillee  comme  celie  d^une  moine^^ 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  head  with  the 
bust  of  Balzac  as  a young  man.  The  resemblance 
between  the  two  faces  is  precise  ; but  in  the  older 
face  there  is  amplification  of  scale,  amplification  of 
feature  and  expression.  It  is  not,  as  in  the  first 
instance,  a young  man  looking  out  on  the  world, 
but  the  author  of  the  Comedie  Humaine ; it  is  an 
interpretation  of  an  exalted  and  ironical  mind,  by  an 
art  which  comprehends  the  exaltation  and  the  irony. 
One  cannot  look  upon  the  face  of  a man  of  great 
achievements,  and  dissociate  its  character  from  the 
achievements.  Rodin  has  portrayed  his  Balzac  as 
he  has  seen  him  ; and  as  probably  the  rest  of  the 
world  will  in  the  course  of  time  come  to  see  him. 

* Lamartine,  Balzac. 


£ 


VIII 

There  are  other  phases  of  Rodin’s  art 
which  can  only  be  casually  referred  to 
in  this  little  book.  There  are,  for  in- 
stance, his  drypoints,  distinctive  and  charming 
as  in  ‘‘The  Spring.”  There  are  his  wash  draw- 
ings, studies  of  the  model,  which  perhaps  scarcely 
exist  as  independent  works  of  art ; there  are  his 
preliminary  sketches  for  the  Gate  of  Hell  (these 
have  been  published  in  portfolio),  derived  from  the 
Inferno  of  Dante,  possessing  much  of  the  mystical 
quality,  both  in  sentiment  and  form,  of  William 
Blake.  And,  finally,  there  are  his  sketches  in  line 
from  the  model  (see  p.  67),  which  are  a sort  of 
short-hand  notes,  drawn  on  a system  peculiar  to 
Rodin  himself.  Keeping  his  attention  fixed  on  the 
model,  his  pencil  alone  follows  the  lines  on  the 
paper,  with  at  times  very  incongruous  effect. 

The  personal  note  which  is  manifest  in  Rodin’s 


'S 


l-p4u.  d crt-^ 


68 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


direct  representation  of  Nature,  is  not  less  manifest 
in  his  work  of  a purely  symbolic  type.  Symbolism 
in  literature,  in  prose  literature,  at  any  rate,  is 
largely  the  expression  of  ideas  which  with  more 
deliberate  thought  might  as  well  be  expressed  in  a 
direct  manner.  But  in  forms  of  art  of  more 
definite  limitations,  as  in  sculpture,  there  are  ideas 
which  can  be  suggested  only  by  symbols.  The 
vocabulary  of  symbolism  in  sculpture  has  not  been 
very  extensive  and  is  familiar  to  every  one : the  repre- 
sentations of  Truth,  and  Hope,  and  Virtue,  and  the 
rest  have  become  largely  a convention  ; and  every 
exhibition  of  sculpture  possesses  variations  on  the 
themes  of  Spring  and  Autumn,  of  a range  of  subjects 
which  have  become  more  or  less  stereotyped.  Rodin 
has  gone  farther  afield ; or,  rather,  he  has  been 
content  with  the  creations  of  his  own  fantasy,  and 
has  given  expression  to  ideas  in  sculpture  which 
hitherto  have  been  more  common  to  poetry.  Of 
such  are  Une  esqutsse  (Tun  reve ; une  ombre  vient 
parler  a une  femme  desolee^  Les  nuages^  Le  crepuscule 
descendant  dans  la  nuit^  La  parque  et  la  jeune  filky 
Amor  fugtty  Desespoir^  and  many  others. 

There  is  also  his  Monument  du  Travail^  a tower 
containing  on  its  interior  walls  reliefs  of  masons. 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


69 


carpenters,  joiners,  and  various  types  of  workers. 
The  entrance  to  the  spiral  way,  from  which  the 
sculptures  may  be  seen,  is  guarded  by  two  figures, 
symbols  of  Day  and  Night ; and  on  the  summit 
of  the  tower  are  Les  benedictions^  a group  which 
Rodin  has  just  completed,  and  which  gives  unity 
and  a poetic  value  to  the  whole  conception. 
Another  monument  of  a very  different  kind/Mestinee 
k evoquer  le  souvenir  d’une  femme,”  with  its  fan,  its 
roses,  with  its  symbols  of  music,  youth,  and  other 
fancies,  as  charming  as  a cavalier  lyric,  indicates, 
taken  with  his  other  work,  a catholicity  of  vision 
sufficiently  rare  in  any  art. 

Since  this  essay  was  projected,  various  circum- 
stances have  contributed  to  make  Rodin  a popular 
figure  in  the  artistic  life  of  this  country.  When, 
in  the  winter  of  last  year,  a group  of  English 
members  of  Parliament  accepted  an  invitation  to 
Paris  from  their  political  confreres  of  France,  Rodin’s 
studio  was  included  among  their  places  of  pilgrimage. 
A few  weeks  later,  Rodin  was  offered,  and 
accepted,  the  Presidentship,  in  succession  to  Mr. 
Whistler,  of  the  International  Society  of  Artists, 
which,  at  the  moment  of  writing,  is  holding  at  the 


70 


AUGUSTE  RODIN 


New  Gallery  its  fourth  exhibition.  Rodin  was 
present  at  the  opening  ceremony,  and  during  his 
short  stay  in  London  he  was  received  by  the 
King.  In  view  of  the  general  apathy  hitherto 
prevailing  in  regard  to  the  art  of  sculpture,  these 
events  are  of  some  importance.  It  suggests 
not  the  revival  of  interest,  but  the  awakening 
of  interest  in  an  art  which  has  scarcely  been 
sulBciently  appreciated  in  this  country.  Art  may 
at  times  find  esoteric  and  individual  expression 
apart  from  the  spirit  of  contemporary  life.  But  its 
vitality  is  sapped,  its  progress  is  delayed  if  there  is 
not  a responsive  public.  We  have  had  an 
Alfred  Stevens  ; we  still  have  an  Alfred  Gilbert 
and  other  sculptors  of  fine  achievement,  as  well  as 
many  younger  men  of  promise.  It  may  be  thought 
that  the  revival  of  interest  in  architecture  and  the 
applied  arts,  which  has  been  one  of  the  most  serious 
manifestations  of  the  artistic  spirit  in  recent  years, 
has  prepared  the  way  for  the  appreciation  and  ade- 
quate cultivation  of  the  art  of  sculpture. 


POT.YPHEMUS 


LIST  OF  M.  RODIN’S  PRINCIPAL 
WORKS 


1864.  L’Homme  au  nez  casse.  Bust,  bronze  (Salon, 
1878). 

1875.  Portrait  of  M.  B . Bust,  marble. 

Portrait  of  Garnier.  Bust,  terra‘Cotta. 

1877.  L’Age  d’Airain.  (Salon,  1877.)  Paris ; Luxem- 

bourg. 

1878.  St.  John  the  Baptist.  (Salon,  1880.)  Paris: 

Luxembourg. 

1881.  Eve.  Bronze. 

1882.  Bust  of  Legros.  Bronze  (Salon,  1883). 

Bust  of  Henley.  Bronze. 

1883.  La  Bellone.  Bust,  bronze. 

General  Lynch.  Equestrian  statue. 

Le  Genie  de  la  Guerre.  Paris:  Collection 
Pontremoli. 

1885.  Bust  of  Dalon. 

Bust  of  Victor  Hugo.  Paris:  Hotel  de  Ville. 
1886-1890.  Le  Baiser.  Small  group. 

Bust  of  Jean  Paul  Laurens.  Bronze.  Paris: 
Luxembourg. 

La  Dana'ide.  Marble.  Paris : Luxembourg. 
Statue  of  Bastien  Lepage.  Damvilliers. 
L’Eternelle  Idole. 

La  Misere  ou  la  Fatigue  Paris : Collection 
Vever. 

Bust  of  Octave  Mirbeau.  Marble  (New  Salon, 

1895)- 

La  Pensee.  Marble.  Paris : Luxembourg. 
Lavieille  Heaulmi^:re.  Bronze.  Paris:  Luxem- 
bourg. 


72  LIST  OF  PRINCIPAL  WORKS 


Le  Baiser.  Marble,  Paris : Luxembourg. 

Le  Frere  et  la  Sceur.  Bronze, 

1891.  La  jeune  Mere. 

1892.  Bust  of  Puvis  de  Chavannes.  Plaster  (New 

Salon,  1892). 

Bust  of  Henri  Rochefort. 

The  Monument  of  Claude  Gellee.  Nancy. 

L’ivTERNEL  PrINTEMPS. 

Orphee  ET  Eurydice.  Marble.  Yerkes  Collection. 
La  Voix  interieure.  Stockholm. 

1895.  Les  Bourgeois  de  Calais.  Calais. 

L’Illusion,  Fille  d’Icare.  Bronze  (New  Salon, 

1896). 

L’Enfant  Prodigue. 

1896.  Minerve. 

Le  Poete  et  la  vie  contemplative.  For  M. 
Fenaille. 

1897.  Monument  of  Victor  Hugo  (incomplete).  (New 

Salon,  1897). 

Monument  of  President  Sarmiento.  Argentine 
Republic. 

1898-1904.  Statue  of  Balzac.  Plaster  (New  Salon, 
1898). 

Le  Monument  du  Travail. 

Les  Benedictions. 

Le  Groupe  du  Crepuscule. 

La  Parque  et  la  jeune  Fille. 

Bust  of  Falguiere. 

Les  Nuages. 

Les  Trois  Ombres. 

1882-1904.  La  Porte  de  L’Enfer. 


Printed  by  Ballantyne,  Hanson  6^  Co.  ' 
London  Edinburgh 


